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HUMANITY IMMORTAL; 



OK, 



MAN TRIED, FALLEN, AND REDEEMED. 



BY 

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LAURENS P; HICKOK, D.D.,LL.D. 



\rr ladMS 



BOSTON: 

LEE AND SHEPARD, PUBLISHERS. 

N-ETW YORK: 

LEE, SHEPARD AND DILLINGHAM. 

1872. 



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Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, 

By LAURENS P. HICKOK, 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



Stereotyped at the Boston Stereotype Foundry, 
19 Spring Lane. 



PREFACE. 



In closing the work of " Creator and Creation," it 
was noted that the full Idea of Humanity could be 
comprehended only in a history of man through his 
trial, fall, redemption, and resurrection to eternal 
Life ; and the design to give, in an anticipated 
opportunity, such a history was intimated. That 
history, as then contemplated, is here accomplished. 
In that speculative work we found the Universe con- 
stituted a Cosmos of order and beauty from essential 
Forces, both material and ethereal ; and such essen- 
tial Forces, put in motion round their creative source, 
Vvorked themselves into separate spheres, and dis- 
tributed the spheres into revolving suns and plane- 
tary Systems. However other worlds may have their 
dead matter quickened into life, on our earth an Or- 
ganizing Instinct was, by the Creator, superinduced 
upon a portion of the ethereal Atoms as an assimila- 
tive life-power, communicating itself to and working 
in other mechanical forces to build them up in living 
bodies, and so from the Mineral kingdom were formed 
the plants and trees of the Vegetable kingdom ; and 
out of and above this were wrought the nervous or- 
ganisms for sentient life in the Animal kingdom ; and 

3 



4 PREFACE. ,r 

in the union of sense with reason in Humanity, the 
whole creative work was crowned by installing over 
all the sovereign prerogatives of a Spiritual king- 
dom. All the former find their end in entire sub- 
serviency to the imperative claims of the last. 

The life-instinct in the vegetable Idngdom. never 
rises into consciousness ; the animal kingdom has 
sentient life in persistent consciousness only so long 
as it may hold the nervous organism in combination, 
and the dissolution of the nervous system is the de- 
struction of all sensibility ; biit the spiritual kingdom 
has immortal life and intelligence. Absolute Reason 
neither begins nor ends, and the inspiration of finite 
reason in the human • individual secures for him per- 
petual personality. Vegetable and animal organisms 
fall asunder and perish, for the life-power which builds 
and holds them in individuality is the causal efficiency 
of nature only ; but reason is supernatural, and wher- 
ever it comes it carries with it eternal rights and 
claims, and no power less than the creative, which 
first breathed rational spirit into man, can take back 
his immortal prerogatives from man. The primal 
forces, in which th^ ..individual human life begins, 
must be perpetuated thi'ough life to preserve its 
identity; and the bond which holds the identical 
forces in human individuality is rational Spirit, which 
cannot work in the sentient life it is set to control 
without awaking claims that forever attach sentient 
soul and rational spirit together; and hence every 
human individual must have also its immortal sentient 
identity. No matter how many, nor how often, ad- 



PREFACE. 5 

ventitions elements may assimilate with, and dissolve 
from, these primal essential forces -wTiich perpetuate 
the man's identity ; his spiritual individuality will hold 
those essential forces to be his, unless God withdraw 
his own in-breathing, and so himself undo his own 
original creating. 

Every human life has thus a perpetual ongoing ex-" 
perience, and as each is a propagation from an origi- 
nal stock by natural generation, so the primitive life 
sends down its connections through all, and makes 
for humanity a universal history. In that which is 
peculiar to man must human experience and history 
differ from other spiritual communities in other 
spheres ; but since the one Father of spirits is Crea- 
tor and Lord of all spirits, so in this one source of 
all authority and responsibility must all rational be- 
ings, in all worlds, be necessarily implicated in com- 
mon interests, and stand each to each in reciprocity 
of rights and obligations. The work now before us 
is to trace, in general outline, the specific History of 
Humanity from its beginning to its consummation in 
the eternal state, with the communings and collisions 
that may occur with other orders of spiritual intelli- 
gences ; taking as our guide the offered light from 
speculative reason, and from divine revelation, and, 
so far as the facts of experience may be gathered, 
from the records of past ages. The light shining 
from all these sources must give in all readings the 
same one meaning, since all are reflections from the 
one pure source of Absolute Truth and Wisdom. 

In the same foregoing work referi'ed to, it was noted 



6 PREFACE. 

that the creating Absolute Spirit cannot be an object 
of knowledge Except as contemplated in three dis- 
tinct agencies, each as Will working in consciousness 
through its peculiar appropriation for itself of the 
one Absolute Reason-consciousness. As originator 
of the pure ideal universe, the first is the Father; 
as expressing this in overt manifestation, the second 
is the Word ; and as holding all comprehensively in 
one, the tbird is the Holy Ghost. But not only in 
Creation; in governmental administration and fre- 
quent communication, the same threefold agency in 
the one Absolute Being must also necessarily be 
recognized. The second reveals the secret purpose 
of the first in such communications, and the third 
secures the execution, in human heart and will, of 
that counsel which the first has and the second 
publishes. The Holy Ghost has its more special dis- 
pensation in the later experiences of the race, but 
the expressing Logos is from the start the appropri- 
ate Mediator between God and Man, openly exhibit- 
ing the inner heart of Deity, and intimately commin- 
gling his agency with the experiences of the human 
family. An exclusive Mediatorial kingdom is by him 
established among men, which in legislation and 
administration has nowhere else its parallel. Both 
the Wordand Spirit make here their disclosures of the 
Mystery of Godliness in ways altogether else unpre- 
cedented, and greatly adding interest and importance to 
the spiritual liistory of Humanity. We proceed to re- 
late it as we shall carefully find it. 
Amherst, Mass , 1872. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTEE I 



PAGE 

THE PRIMITIVE TRIAL OF HUMANITY 17 



SECTION I. 

PRINCIPLES NECESSARILY DIRECTING IN THE 
TRIAL 19 

1. Integrity of Character is in the Control of Sense 

BY Spirit 20 

2. The Trial must be imposed at the Outset 22 

3. The Test must put Sense anp Spirit squarely in 

Conflict • . 23 

4. The Destruction, if disobedient, should be plainly 

announced 25 

5. Capability for the Future Bliss can be only in pass- 

ing THE Trial 27 

SECTION 11. 

THE TEMPTATION AND FALL OF MAN 29 

1. The Manner in which Adam and Eve were tempted. 81 

2. The Process and Success of Satan's Temptation. . . 34 

3. The Sin of Man was wholly his own Origination. . 38 

7 



CONTENTS. 



SECTION III. 

CHANGES INDUCED BY THE SIN OF MAN 40 

1. Changes on the Part of the Man and "Woman. ... 42 

i. Sense had assumed the Sovereignty 42 

ii. Their Sin induced perpetual Shame and Fear. . . 43 

Hi. Their State became impotent and hopeless 44 

2. Changes towards Man on the Part op God 45 

, i. There was manifested deep Disapprobation 45 

ii. There was Paternal Compassion 46 

Hi. From Displeasure and Pity came the Purpose of 

Kedemption 47 

iv. Open Communion was changed to Mediation. ... 49 
V. God's Dealings changed to blended Severity and 

Kindness 50 

3. Changes regarding Humanity in General ^ . . 52 

i. Adam ceased to act as Public Head of the Kace. . . 52 

ii. Fallen Humanity will now perpetuate Depravity. . 54 
Hi. The Promised Kedemption assumed this Universal 

Change. 58 

iv. A Remedial System must have better Promise. . . 59 



CHAPTER II. 

THD REDEEMER MUST PREPARE HUMANITY FOR 
HIS ADVENT 61 

SECTION I. 

SPECIAL PROVIDENCES CURB DEPRAVED PROPEN- 
SITIES 63 

1. The World overwhelmed by the Flood 65 

2. Shortening of Human Life 67 

3. Guarding Life by Capital Punishment 69 

4. Confounding their Language 71 



CONTENTS. 9 

SECTION 11. 
THE CALL OF ABRAHAM . 74 

1. Means for securing Abraham's Faith and Devotion. . 77 

2. Influence on Abraham's Descendants in the Line of 

Promise 79 

SECTION III. 

EGYPT, AND THE GOING OF THE ISRAELITES 
DOWN TO IT 81 

1. Settlement and Growth of Egypt 83 

2. The Government op Egypt 92 

3. The Religion of Egypt. 93 

4. The Israelites' Removal to Egypt 98 

SECTION lY. 

THE EXODUS, AND ESTABLISHMENT OF THE HE- 
BREW GOVERNMENT 103 

1. Hebrew Character from Egyptian Education 104 

2. A Theocracy adopted by God and the People. . . . 107 

3. The Hebrew Theocracy acknowledged the true God 

ONLY 110 

4. Special Ordinances separating Israel from Idolaters. 118 

SECTION V. 

TRUTHS OF REDEMPTION UNDER A DOUBLE- 
SENSE 123 

1. The Passover Feast 125 

2. Ceremony of the Scape-goat 127 

3. The Construction and Services of Tabernacle and 

Temple 128 

4. Double-sense demands careful Discrimination. . . . 129 
5j The Theocratic Ritual a Spiritual Service 133 



10 CONTENTS. 

SECTION VI. 

ADMINISTRATION OF THE THEOCRACY TO THE 

CAPTIVITY 135 

1. Theocracy under Moses 136 

2. Theocracy under Joshua 140 

3. Theocracy under the Judges 144 

4. Theocracy under the Kings 146 

5. Division and Dispersion of Israel, and Captivity op 

JUDAH 154 

SECTION VII. 

FROM CAPTIVITY TO COMING OF THE MESSIAH. 163 

1. The Jews while subject to the Assyrians 165 

2. "While subject to the Persians 169 

3. While sueject to Alexander and Successors 174 

4. While under the Maccabees 179 

5. While under the Romans 184 

6. The Ministry of John Baptist 188 

i. Design of John's Dispensation 190 

ii. Peculiarity of John's Baptism 192 

in. Account of John's Life and Times 194 



CHAPTER III. 

THE INCARNATION, WORK, AND DOCTRINE OF THE 
REDEEMER. 198 

SECTION I. 
THE INCARNATION OF THE LOGOS 200 

1. The Redeemer is born of a Virgin 200 

2. Jesus was born more than Human 203 

3. Though Divine and Human, he was one Being. . . . 207 

4. In himself he is Prophet, Priest, and King 210 



CONTENTS. 11 



SECTION 11. 

THE REDEMPTIVE WORK WROUGHT IN HUMAN 

FLESH. 213 

1. His Work opened in Private Conflict with the Devil. 215 

2. General Outline op Christ's Public Ministry 218 

3. Comprehensive Import of his Teaching 224 

4. His Life and Example like his Teaching. ...... 225 

5. Crucifixion, and Resurrection the third Day. . . . . 227 

SECTION III. 

THE DOCTRINES OF REDEMPTION IN THE INCAR- 
NATION 228 

1. Gospel Redemption is in no Way op Legal Justice. . 230 

2. In the Incarnation Penal Justice takes an Equivalent. 233 

3. The Word made Flesh has magnified the Law. . . . 235 

4. The Incarnation is Equivalent for Piety as well as 

Penalty 238 

5. It opens the new Principle op Obedience from grate- 

ful Love 241 

6. Redemption opened to All, but appropriated only by 

THE Renewed 244 

i. In the Way of Pardon 245 

ii. In the Way of Justification 246 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE HOLY GHOST SEALS REDEMPTION TO MAN. 249 

SECTION 1. 

THE MANNER OF THE SPIRIT'S COMING 250 

1. The Mosaic Ritual prefigured the Spirit's Work. . . 251 

2. His Coming was announced in Prophecy 252 

3. His Coming promised by Christ to his Disciples. . . 253 

4. His Descent at Pentecost 256 



12 CONTENTS. 

SECTION II. 

THE MANNER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT'S AGENCY. . . 258 

1. It is a Moral Power, not Physical Force 258 

2. Its Action is direct upon Mind. 260 

3. It precedes and tends to right Action by Man. . . . 261 

4. It may be resisted by the Sinner 262 

5. The Effectual Calling induces a Complying Will. . . 264 

6. The Assenting Will must be to the Truth 265 

SECTION III. 

THE WORK THE HOLY SPIRIT ACCOMPLISHES. . . 266 

1. The Spirit's Work in Inspiration 267 

2. The Spirit's W^ork in Miracles 271 

3. The Spirt's Work in Regeneration 275 

4. The Spirit's Work in Sanctification 280 

i. It is within the Human Spirit 281 

ii. It secures Perseverance 282 

Hi. It will perfect Sanctification only at Death. .... 284 

5. The Work of the Spirit is in Sovereignty 286 

CHAPTER V. 

THE LAST THINGS IN THE REDEMPTION OF HU- 
MANITY 291 

SECTION I. 

SPECULATIVE VIEW OF HUMAN DEATH. ...'.. 293 

1. All Death differs from Natural Decomposition. . . 294 

2. The Vegetable has the lovtest Life and simplest 

Form of Death 294 

3. The Animal is sentient, and has a Death of Sensation. 295 

4. Human Death divides, but leaves Soul and Spirit 

Immortal 297 



CONTENTS. 13 

SECTION II. 

THE INl^ERMEDIATE STATE 300 

1. Conscious Individuality aftek Death 302 

2. The Spiritual World 304 

3. All Restriction is from the Disposition 305 

4. There is no Opportunity for Purgatorial Experi- 

ences 306 

'5. Where the Spirit goes at Death will be its Final 

State 307 

SECTION III. 
THE RESURRECTION 308 

1. The Resurrection indicated in the Analogies of Na- 

ture 308 

2. Instinctive Anticipations are Premonitions of it. . . 310 

3. The Reason of the Case claims the Reunion of Soul 

AND Spirit 310 

4. Revelation the Ultimate Authority for it 311 

5. The Resurrection-body specially changed 314 

6. The Resurrection, as presented by the Apostle Paul. 318 

7. Revealed Resurrections and Translations 321 

SECTION IV. 
THE FINAL JUDGMENT * 324 

1. Design of the Final Judgment 325 

2. Evidences for a Final Judgment 326 

3. The Judgment will come suddenly and unexpjjctedly. 327 

4. The Judge will appear in great Majesty 328 

5. Those who are to be judged 329 

6. All Secrets laid open 330 

7. The Form and Process of the Judgment 331 

8. Thb General Conflagration 332 



14 CONTENTS. 



SECTION V. 

ISSUES OF THE JUDGMENT FOR BOTH GOOD AND 

BAD , 333 

1. All God's preceding Dealings have been reasonable. 334 

2. God will for the Future be universally reasonable. 338 

3. Revelation also puts Future Condition upon Char- 

acter 341 

4. Probation in Life, Endless Retribution at Death. . . 342 

i. Proved from Record of Providential Judgments. . 343 
a. Proved from the Feelings manifest in Inspired 

Teachers. 344 

Hi. Proved from Conduct of their Hearers 345 

iv. Proved from plain Scripture Declarations 345 

SECTION VI. 

THE END OF THE MEDIATORIAL REIGN 347 

1. The Kingdom authoritatively given to Christ. . . . 349 

2. He consummates his Reign in subjecting all Things. 351 

3. Paul sees, and alone states, the Renunciation op 

the Kingdom 354 

4. The Apostle John sees and states what is beyond. . 359 



HUMAN^ITY IMMORTAL. 



The highest elevation attained in nature is the 
gratification of sentient life in the animal kingdom. 
But in man sense has been crowned with reason, and 
as supernatural, man has dominion over nature, and 
an end of life far exalted above all animal happiness. 
His highest prerogatives stand in his endowment of 
reason, which renders him competent to attain moral 
character, and in his spiritual integrity to possess 
that true dignity which secures the respect and ap- 
probation of all rational intelligences. The manly 
valor which holds all sense-appetite in subordination 
to spiritual integrity is true virtue, and this must be 
attained and persistently kept, or self-reproach and 
public condemnation must follow. 

Confirmed and stable character in virtue can be 
attained only through full trial and discipline. From 
the very constitution of humanity, " the flesh lusteth 
against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, and 
these are contrary the one to the other," and from 

15 



16 PRIMITIVE TEIAL OF HUMANITY. 

self-conflict alone can there be found self-conquest; 
and without the trial which opens a way for defeat 
and shame there cannot be victory and honor. It is 
no matter of choice, but necessity in the case itself, 
that humanity must be fully tested, since veteran 
courage and inflexible integrity can be gained and 
established only through the discipline of sore temp- 
tation and intense opposition. It is not paternal 
faithfulness, but parental weakness, which will with- 
draw the child from rigorous tests to his fidelity and 
allegiance. The virtue which has endured the sever- 
est conflicts is the most precious, and the love to 
truth and duty, which has in its way made the most 
sacrifices for truth and duty, is the most strong and 
reliable ; while no seeming fidelity, which stands only 
amid favoring interests and congenial inclinations, can 
be trusted in the day of adversity and persecution. 
The sterling character is matured in the process of 
struggle and conflict, and the '^ patience, experience, 
and hope that maketh not ashamed," are only attained 
by having passed through " divers temptations." The 
first necessity for the newly created humanity is a 
fairly arranged discipline for the trial in virtue. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE PRIMITIVE TRIAL OF HUJVIAOTTY. 

The nature of the case determines the necessity 
for human discipline ; and if there be other orders of 
rational beings, the only way in which they also can 
be established in virtue, and maintain the integrity of 
moral character, is by an applied trial appropriate to 
their constitution and condition. Many things, both 
from speculation and the facts connected with the 
Divine Revelation of the trial of man, indicate that 
his trial was at the same time an occasion for the dis- 
cipline and trial of other and higher grades of intelli- 
gent beings ; and that while some sustained the trial 
and gained confirmation in loyalty, others wilfully re- 
volted from their allegiance, and in their fall became 
also direct sources of temptation and corruption to 
the human family. Nothing in reason or revelation 
contradicts, while much in both indicates, that all sin 
which has come into the universe found its first en- 
trance in connection with man's trial and primitive 
disobedience. 

Repeated irruptions of sin and rebellion in separate 
2 17 



18 PRIMITIVE TRIAL OF HUMANITY. 

orders or worlds of the divine government, making 
necessary varied methods of vindicating God's author- 
ity by retribution or redemption, can hardly be recon- 
ciled, by any rational speculation, with the majesty 
and integrity of the sovereignty ^ while ready relief 
•in reconciling the admission of sin with the divine 
attributes is attained, by supposing all ranks of moral 
beings to have stood firm in allegiance through pre- 
vious discipline, till, in the new circumstances occa- 
sioned by man's creation and trial, they came to a 
sharper test of fidelity, which many improved for 
firmer confirmation in loyalty, and some perverted the 
occasion and fell ofi" in rebellion. If but slight hints 
that this was so, be found in revelation, their plain 
conformity with the reason of the case would make 
slight intimations grounds of safe conclusion. One 
occasion for sin, and one interposition for divine vin- 
dication in permitting it, will, then, be sufficient for all 
worlds through eternity. With such supposition, man 
is at once made the central point of moral interest for 
the universe, according with Scripture representation, 
that angels intently watch God's dealings with our 
small world. He is revealing himself here as he does 
on no other theatre, and all orders of spirits look on 
and wonder. 



PRINCIPLES DETERMINING THE TRIAL. 19 



SECTION I. 

PEINCIPLES NECESSARILY DIRECTING IN THE TRIAL. 

Humanity, from its constitution and relation to its 
Creator, presents many points from which the reason 
sees determining principles, relatively to the disci- 
pline which must be applied, and the trial it should 
receive at the hand of the Father and Sovereign of 
the human family. It does not lie open to arbitrary 
arrangements on the part of the sovereign, nor admit 
that there be any claim to consent on the part of man 
to arrangements divinely made. It cannot be viewed 
in the light of covenant-making, binding by mutual 
contract; but from the state of the parties, the fact 
and the manner of trial must be settled by the Crea- 
tor himself, on considerations which he shall see to 
be equitable and reasonable, in view of his own honor, 
and what also shall be seen to be the most favorable 
to a happy issue on the part of man. The paternal 
heart of the sovereign is more deeply interested in 
securing confirmed loyalty and perpetual safety to 
the human race, than any other being; and just as 
the divine perfections make God sovereign, so they 
also determine that he is to appoint the mode of dis- 
cipline and direct in all the trial. Absolute Reason 



20 PRIMITIVE TRIAL OF HUMANITY. 

must control and guide himself in all his arrange- 
ments by eternal principles of rectitude and benev- 
olence. 

1. The iNTEGTRiry of Human Chaeacter is in the 
Control of Sense by the Spirit. — Humanity is con- 
stituted of sense and spirit, and to one or the other 
must the supreme control be given. There can be no 
neutral position between the ends of gratifying sense 
and honoring the spirit ; and the point of danger is 
the disposing of the spiritual activity to the end of 
sense-gratification, and therein incurring spiritual 
degradation. The alternatives presented are not at 
all of degi^'ees in the same thing, but of utterly dis- 
tinct kinds. Gratification of sense and approbation 
of spirit cannot be included under any one term, as 
happiness, or blessedness, so that it may become a 
question of policy or expediency in taking that which 
shall on the whole give the most ; the question of vir- 
tue, or integrity of character, is only in taking the 
spiritual end, and this is wholly lost in taking the end 
of sense. An animal may be guided by prudential 
considerations in attaining highest happiness on the 
whole, since sentient gratification is the end of ani- 
mal life, and by no way can the animal attain integ- 
rity of character in virtue. But for man to attain the 
•highest gratification possible, as end of his life, would 
be not only the missing of all virtue, as in the case of 
the brute, but the incurring unmitigated sin and 
guilt. The highest possible happiness sought and 



PRINCIPLES DETERMINING THE TRIAL. 21 

attained against the end the spirit claims, subjects the 
spirit to perpetual debasement and shame. And with 
the spirit so subjected to sense, and self-disposed to 
carnal indulgence, it is also ready for all spiritual 
wickedness in its own high sphere of mere spiritual 
agency. The spirit itself has in this become alienated 
from the ends of all other spirits, and in its selfishness 
it will manifest its pride, and scorn, and hate, and 
envy, and jealousy, and revenge, as the devils do, who 
can have no carnal lusting. The birthright of hu- 
manity is perpetual self-approbation, securing eternal- 
ly God's approbation ; but in fixing on sense-gratifica-, 
tion and self-ascendency, there is inevitable self-deg- 
radation and divine abhorrence. 

Any one appetite allowed to control the spirit will 
keep the door open for every appetite when its occasion 
comes ; and only by putting and keeping " the body 
under " can the man be safe, or his conscience peaceful. 
The fruit of the fleshy disposition is in all forms of 
iniquity, and the fruit of a spiritual disposing is every 
virtue.^ The entire moral man is in his disposition, 
and out of it, as carnal or spiritual, come all the vices 
or virtues of his life. To be complete, then, the trial 
need not be made in reference to every sensuous 
appetite, nor any more in regard to every spiritual 
claim ; when fairly made in reference to some one 
opening for sensual indulgence, it will be conclusive 
for all, and the test will need neither repeating nor 
varying. The trial must be, or the virtue cannot be 

1 Gal. V. 19-23. 



22 PRIMITIVE TRIAL OF HUMANITY. 

confirmed and established, but fairly and fully to put 
the man between the ends of the flesh and the ends 
of the rational spirit, for the issue of his sense-dis- 
posing or his spirit-disposing, is all that is needful ; 
and as the disposition which he shall there give to 
himself may be, such will be his radical character on 
his own responsibility. In some way the trial and the 
issue must come, and the only question is, whether 
the trial shall be left to a fortuitous occurrence, or 
whether it shall be divinely and thus paternally 
ordered. The first must be unreasonable, the latter 
must every way be desirable. 

2. The Trial must be imposed at the very Out- 
set. — Were humanity left to its own way, and the 
first man started upon his practical course under the 
light and influence which daily experience alone 
might give, the issue between sense and spirit in 
his constitution would be soon joined and the disposi- 
tion taken. Appetite would immediately prompt to 
gratification, and reason must soon assert its claims, 
and the occasion come for a conflict between passion- 
ate impulse and conscious obligation ; and the dispos- 
ing of the spirit in servile compliance with the appe- 
titive impulse, or the imperative behest, would form 
and fix the radical character accordingly. But for 
the sake of God and man, such fortuitous trial should 
be prevented. God's love to righteousness, and his 
kind care for his intelligent creatures, will certainly 
secure that the most favoring conditions and influ- 



PRINCIPLES DETERMINING THE TRIAL. 23 

ences for the integrity of the spirit, consistent with 
the completeness of the trial, shall be interposed. 

And such divine arrangement and interposition 
must be at the start, for the discipline immediately 
commences with the opening experience, and any 
delay will endanger the issue in a fixed disposition 
before the paternal arrangements are made. If, in 
such delay, an issue should be disastrous, although 
man would have fixed his character by his own act, 
and on his responsibility, yet must there ever be 
the unhappy reflection that the prompt benevolence 
of the Creator had failed in doing for human holiness 
all that full equity and justice would have allowed. 
To satisfy his own fatherly heart, and show to man- 
kind forever his earliest love and regard for human 
welfare, God will infallibly begin his dealings with 
humanity by putting man amid arrangements for 
discipline and trial as salutary and kindly influential 
as possible, consistent with its necessary strictness. 
The very first point in human history must, therefore, 
be the account of God's arrangements, under which 
he wisely determines that the character of the first 
human pair shall be formed. This, and the general 
facts of the process and result, will stand upon the 
very first page, and all subsequent pages of human 
history must transmit the hue which colors the trans- 
actions of this earliest record. 

* 3. The Test must put the Sense and Spirit 
SQUARELY IN CONFLICT. — In many cases appetite will 



24 PRIMITIVE TRIAL OF HUMANITY. 

stand in accordance with obligation ; or if at variance 
at all, it may be remotely and obscurely, and some- 
times the motives may present themselves in a 
blended form, as partly sensual only, and which may 
plausibly be taken as wholly spiritual ; and while in 
any position the man would be bound to carefully dis- 
criminate, and act upon his full responsibility to the 
honor and dignity of his spirit, and could acquire no 
virtue except as he was spiritually disposed, yet 
would not any mixed and confused appeal appear 
reasonable, as an appointed and formal method of 
trial. If God should interpose and put his own 
arrangements in order for human discipline, and test 
the human spirit the most fairly and decisively, it is 
manifestly reasonable that the issue be directly joined, 
and the sense and the spirit be set clearly and 
squarely one against the other. 

Any constitutional appetite may be taken, and the 
desire of gratification strongly excited, and in fact 
but one act of tried gratification can occur at one 
time ; and over against this there may be put, and 
strongly pressed, any claim purely spiritual, and be- 
tween such conflicting appeals the issue will be 
fairly joined, and the strength and integrity of the 
spirit directly put upon trial. The claim of reason, 
in the end and honor of the finite spirit only, might 
lack both in clearness and strength for a fair and 
favorable issue ; but if the finite spirit be thrown 
directly upon its allegiance to the Absolute Spirit, 
and made to stand under the pressure of positive 



PRINCIPLES DETERMINING THE TRIAL. 25 

divine authority, the utmost clearness and strength 
of spiritual claim may thus be applied. When a 
positive command, a known " thus saith the Lord," 
stands over against an excited sensual impulse, and 
is put at the time as a known occasion for testing the 
fidelity and strengthening the virtue of the finite 
spirit, there then comes out an unmistakable spirit- 
iTal behest against a sensuous appetite, and the trial 
is plainly and unavoidably secured. If appetite pre- 
vail, and the spirit consent to serve the sense in such 
a test, there can be no apology made, that the highest 
possible spiritual obligations were not pressed upon 
the conscience for the preservation of its purity and 
integrity. 

4. The Destruction in subjecting the Spirit to the 
Flesh should be strongly announced. — The good 
gained in holding the sense subject to the spirit did not 
need to be formally announced. The intimate immedi- 
ate communion with God and his fostering presence 
with the first pair on their opening consciousness at 
creation, secured the first exercises to be spiritual con- 
fidence in and obedience to their Creator. The daily 
life had the consequent peace and conscious self appro- 
bation, inseparable from this original trust and love. 
This was their opening experience, all tending to- 
wards perseverance and confirmation in virtue. But 
the strong guard needed as a warning was, the dis- 
closure of the evil necessary upon spiritual subjec- 
tion to sense. The terrible consequences of yielding 



26 PEIMITIVE TRIAL OF HUMiJNITY. 

to excited appetite, and taldag on a carnal disposition, 
should be most emphatically announced in connection 
with the statements appointing the trial. Man's de- 
basement and defilement in the indnlgence of sense 
and dethronement of reason, and God's deep abhor- 
rence of such moral pollution, are required vividly 
to be set before him. 

All this was intended and effected in the primeval 
threatening to man, " In the day thou eatest thereof 
thou shalt surely die." The act of sell-indulgence 
would carry in it the spirit's consent, and fix a radical 
sensual disposition. Self-gratification would hence- 
forth be dominant, and the debasing of the spirit and 
depraving of the character become entire and lasting. 
The spirit would henceforth be in bondage, and 
though still the alternative to persistence in sensu- 
ality, in a return to spiritual recovery and supremacy, 
would be open, yet would not the defiled spirit choose 
it, but would basely cleave to its shameful servitude. 
In sinning, it goes down assenting, and then has 
nothing in it which dissents ; and so, in its own choice, 
its bondage, because free, is final, and hopeless of all 
self^mancipation. Such was the helpless and dread- 
ful condition disclosed in the warning against trans- 
gression, and was all involved in the death so peremp- 
torily threatened. The bare dissolution of the body 
was not the evil primitively intended ; that may be a 
sentence subsequently pronounced in mitigation of 
the first threatening ; the warning designed in it was 
that of endless shame in the spirit itself, and eternal 



PRINCIPLES DETERMINING THE TRIAL. 27 

abhorrence in the sight of God. Nothing was arbi- 
trary in the trial or the penalty, but all ordered and 
announced in kind fidelity to human interest, and 
necessarily putting the issue upon human responsi- 
bility. 

b. The Capabilities for an Eternal State op 
Blessedness can be attained only in passing the 
Hazard of such Trial. — While virtue can be ac- 
quired and confirmed only amid conflicts and trials, 
so, moreover, the very use of the immortal faculties, 
freely and completely, can be attained only in the 
exercises of the spiritual life, which find their source 
directly rn the spiritual disposition. In the specula- 
tions followed out in the work of " Creator and Crea- 
tion," we found life to be an instinctive want superin- 
duced upon ethereal forces, and thus the life literally 
uses the light. In this use the material forces are 
also assimilated and organized into living bodies. 
The instinctive life-want builds up the organisms of 
the Vegetable kingdom, and in further completeness 
of sentient life the organisms also of the Animal king- 
dom ; and only by the control of the rational spirit 
can the '' fleshly mind " be disciplined and governed. 
The human spirit controls the human appetites, and 
thereby constitutional inchnations are held in moral 
restraint. And as this subjects ^he mortal body to 
the free determinations of the spirit, so, when '' the 
• mortal shall have put on immortality," the ^' spiritual 
body " shall much more be subject to the directions 



28 PEIMITIVE TRIAL OF HUMANITY. 

of the reason ; and only as the spirit has reigned in 
time can the resurrection-body be made the ready 
instrument for spiritual employment in eternity. 

There is a perpetual balance of combined forces, 
which perpetuates the identity of the individual body 
amid all its changes of elements in the present proba- 
tionary state, and this will be still held in balanced 
unity by the comprehending spirit in the experiences 
of eternity ; and so the same body in perduring es- 
sence, which was ruled by the spirit here, will much 
more be the spirit's flexible and facile instrument, in 
the world of triumphant glory. But only as the 
spirit has ruled the flesh on earth, can it control the 
essential organism which accompanies it in eternity. 
Its fleshly sympathies and propensities remain when 
its dissolved and cast-off elements are left behind ; 
and these will go earthward, and not heavenward, 
if not guided and used by spiritual affections. The 
spirit which has bowed in bondage to the flesh here, 
can never carry the resurrection-body to the cen- 
tral source of light and glory there. The employ- 
ments can only be as the character and disposition 
of the spirit permits. In the distinctions of sensual 
and spiritual disposition the great separating gulf is 
" fixed." 



TEMPTATION AND PALL OF MAN. 29 



SECTION II. 

THE TEMPTATION AND FALL OF MAN. 

Humanity, in the persons of the first man and wo- 
man, continued for a time in allegiance to the Crea- 
tor, and the sense in subjection to the spirit. On 
the part of God were paternal care and nurture, and 
on the part of man were confiding docility and rev- 
erence. The communion between them was as Fa- 
ther and children ; and as the parent helps the child 
in opening speech and knowledge, so the Lord God 
brought beast and fowl to Adam " to see what he 
would call them, and whatsoever Adam called every 
living creature, that was its name." The abode of 
man was prepared by God as a Garden in a warm 
climate ; and dominion was given to him over all 
animals ; and the herbs, and plants, and fruits of 
Paradise were his food. The occupation of the first 
pair was the dressing and keeping the garden in 
which they dwelt. 

As above noticed, it is most reasonable to assume, 
that during the period of human innocence, and from 
before till the temptation of Eve, there was sin in no 
part of the universe. All moral beings may best be 
considered by us as having hitherto stood in unbroken 



30 PRIMITIVE TRIAL OF* HUMANITY. 

loyalty and blessedness. The sacred history gives 
fair intimation, as we may soon note, that sin began 
in connection with the trial and fall of humanity. An 
older and higher spirit than man found his first in- 
ducement to sin, in connection with man's creation 
and God's primeval dealings with him. Other exalted 
spirits were induced to join in his rebellion, and he 
also was the direct tempter to the first human trans- 
gression. Ever before an angel of light, and promi- 
nent among the heavenly host as the morning star ; 
the new experience opening before him in witnessing 
the creation in flesh and blood of human beings, and 
of a grade below his own, and they yet receiving the 
special intimacy and fostering patronage of the cre- 
ating Logos ; and especially, if we suppose him to 
have been commissioned by the Logos to watch and 
serve the best interests of these first parents of an 
inferior race, we may readily see, might become the 
provocative to feelings of envy, and jealousy, and 
growing hate unknown before in his bosom ; and 
which at length induced that aiTOgant ambition and 
lifting up of pride, which the apostle has affirmed 
was " the condemnation of the devil." The malignity 
towards man, and the quenchless spite and enmity 
towards man's Mediator, everywhere exhibited sub- 
sequently by fallen angels in all the revelation made 
concerning them, is best interpreted through such 
intimations, as that their depravity originated in 
their new acquaintance with this lower order of 
moral beings, and witnessing their Creator's special 



TEMPTATION AND FALL OF MAN. 31 

interest in. them, and perhaps their own required 
ministry to them But we follow the intimations of 
the introduction of sin in the universe, and in human- 
ity, through the Mosaic account ef the trial, tempta- 
tion, and disastrous fall of man. 

1. The Manner in which Adam and Eve were 
TEMPTED. — The trial of man, eventuating in his first 
transgression, had all its particular steps, and suc- 
cessive events, as actual occurrences ; but the mi- 
nute record of the facts have not been given. The 
inspired account by Moses is general and summary, 
particularizing only in the items important for the' 
instruction of future generations. This account in 
Genesis is not to be interpreted as myth or fable; 
nor yet as truth in poetic figure ; but as veritable 
fact, and occurrence according to sense-appearance 
and apprehension. Nothing is recorded which was 
not phenomenally observed ; yet many of the ap- 
pearances have a deeper truth and meaning than 
was recognized by the human agents at the time, 
and which became fully disclosed only in later 
periods. The serpent was the tempting agent im- 
mediately appearing, and yet the prime agency of 
Satan as the responsible tempter, invisibly present, 
is repeatedly afterwards noted. As up to this period 
in holy allegiance, the devil here became an apostate 
and -rebel, and began his sinning in the deception and 
destructive temptation of the new-made human pair. 
It is to these specific transactions that the ISaviour 



32 PEIMTTIVB TEIAL OF HUMANITY. 

refers when he calls the devil " a liar and the father 
of it," and "a murderer from the beginning." ^ And 
from the issue of this successful temptation he is said 
to have " the power of death." 2 And from his crafty 
use of the serpent's subtle instrumentality in this 
deadly work, he gets the emphatic name of " the 
Dragon," and the " Old Serpent." ^ All these are 
persona], permanent characteristics of the devil, as if 
meant to indicate that he began to be a devil and 
satan, a deceiver and an adversary, in these very 
tempting transactions; and that "the beginning" 
from which he vras a liar, and a murderer, was in the 
deceptive and destructive work of the temptation 
and fall at man's beginning. The perpetuated malice 
of fallen spirits towards man, and the malignant en- 
mity towards the Saviour of men, which the devil so 
bitterly exhibited in the days of his flesh, and the 
complete destruction of the works of the devil by the 
Saviour in his incarnation, evince a one great con- 
flict, commencing on occasion of man's creation, and 
forever settled in the triumphant issues of man's 
redemption. 

And so the principle in the parable of " the lost 
sheep" has here its broadest application, that all 
heaven rejoices more for the recovery of one lost 
world, than for all others that have needed no re- 
pentance^. And still further, the one short but ex- 
plicit declaration is given by the apostle, that our 

' John viiL 44. ^ gg^,^ jj i^^ 3 jjg^ ^ii. 9 and xx. 2. 



TEMPTATION AND FALL OP MAN. 33 

redeemed race is enongh to vindicate God in the in- 
tegrity of his wisdom before the Universe, and that 
the mystery of Christ was " to the intent that now 
unto principalities and powers in heavenly places, 
might be known, by the church, the manifold wisdom 
of God." 1 The sin of devils and of men stands in one 
view to the moral universe ; and the redeemed church 
of human believers, through Christ, God meant should 
settle his truth and authority in dealing with all 
sinners. 

The subtlety of the serpent in its power of fascina- 
tion seems designed to represent the devil's crafty 
insinuation to Eve, and here with Eve was the devil's 
first use of the serpent's instrumentality. The human 
victim did not know that there was an assault from 
any spiritual adversary. Later revelations determine 
that the responsible agent was the devil, and this 
serpent-like power of fascination had here its earliest 
Satanic exhibition. 

It is remarkable that not until so late as the time 
of Job, and then successively in the times of David, 
Ahab, and Jehoshaphat,^ do we have any recognition 
of demoniac interference with mankind. The ministry 
of good angels was abundant in the age of the Hebrew 
Patriarchs ; and prohibitions of necromancy and witch- 
craft in the Mosaic law refer to the spirits of dead hu- 
man beings ; but not till beyond the writings of the 
Pentateuch do we hear of fallen angels. This is quite 

*Eph. iii. 10. 2 1 Chron. xxi. 1 ; 2 Chron. xviii. 21, 22. 

3 



34 PRTMITiyE TETAL OF HUMANITY. 

conclusive for the antiquity of these books, for any 
writers of a later age would have recognized a devil. 

2. The Process and Success of the Devil's Temp- 
tation. — The primitive permission and prohibition to 
man was, " Of every tree of the garden thou mayest 
freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good 
and evil, thou shalt not eat of it ; for in the day that 
thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."^ The 
direct and kind intent of God, here, was to set the 
man and woman directly between an impulse of sense 
and a dictate of conscience, giving the necessary al- 
ternative to either a sensual or a spiritual disposing, 
in which permanent character would rest. So plain 
a test, and the act so deliberately taken, would in- 
evitably carry along the spirit in it, and become a 
disposition of the proper selfhood of the person in a 
governing state of will, henceforth controlling the 
subordinate executive volitions. We have noted 
reasons sufficient for believing that the sin of the 
devil originated in connection with the trial of man, 
and shall further on find still more conclusive proof 
for it; and we need here only see the fitting occasion 
for trying with man the loyalty of other than human 
spirits. Angels are not, as human beings, creatures 
of sense, and could not be tested by any appeals to 
sensual appetite. Tlieir selfhood stood directly over 
against other personalities, whether of fellow-crea- 
tures or of God, and their trial must be in the alteina- 

» Gen, ii. 16, 17. 



TEMPTATION AND FALL OF MAN. 35 

tive of subjecting the selfhood to the clear claims of 
others, or arrogating to self against another's right. 
Up to this point, we may believe, all had subordinated 
self to others' rights, and remained holy; but here in 
man's lower state, and God's requisition in behalf of 
man, opened the occasion for scorn, and jealousy, and 
envy, and hate, towards man, and impatience, and 
haughty resistance, and even arrogant defiance, 
towards God; and so angels stood here upon their 
personal responsibility, as well as men. But our at- 
tention is specially to man's trial and its reasonable- 
ness, leaving the devil's tempting interference to his, 
own responsibility. 

It was not sinful in man to see the forbidden fruit 
to be good for food, nor to apprehend it as desirable 
to make one wise, nor yet to have the appetite stimu- 
lated by it ; nor any more was it yet holiness to have 
the conscience excited to the obligation of persistent 
integrity. Such awakened impulse of sense and claim 
of the spirit were alike necessary in the case, that 
there might be probation or discipline. This quicken- 
ing of appetite and of conscience in conflict was con- 
ditional for any trial, and wholly constitutional on the 
part of man. But at just this point opened the oc- 
casion for temptation. An influence from a malign 
source niight here be intentionally exerted upon the 
complex agency of sense and spirit, stimulating the 
former and stupefying the latter, and thereby intensi- 
fying the discipline and augmenting the eflScacy of 
the trial. It can be at once seen, that the tempting 



36 PRIMITIVE TRIAL OF HUMANITY. 

influence must be at the responsibility of the tempter ; 
the tempted is no further responsible than for the act 
of resisting or yielding. The pressure of the tempt- 
ing solicitation upon the sensibility brings no guilt to 
the tempted till the spirit yields its own consent. It 
only becomes an occasion for more firm endurance in 
" letting patience have its perfect work." 

The devil had already learned human nature suf- 
ficiently to calculate the hopeful result to him, in in- 
flaming appetite and stifling conscience ; and this 
process he most cunningly pursued, that thereby he 
might induce a perverse disposition, and fix the race 
in a fallen state at the opening experience of the first 
progenitors. The woman was the more susceptible 
and the less suspicious, and he carefully directed his 
approach to her when alone ; and although now his 
spirit had disposed itself in malicious enmity to God 
and man, and was secretly and artfully plotting the 
ruin of the new race, yet from what has been before 
seen it is safe to assume, that here was his first overt 
act of rebellion against God, and determined injury 
to man. The first angelic sin was the devil's tempt- 
ing, and the first human sin was the woman's listen- 
ing and consenting. On the devil's approach, he had 
already a rebellious and malicious purpose, but she 
was loyal and innocent. The tempter's first aim was 
to remove the pressure of obligation and acquiescence 
to authority, by suggesting some severity and over- 
strictness in the just announced prohibition of the 
fruit of a particular tree. This was skilfully done 



TEMPTATION AND FALL OF MAN. 37 

with the least possible alarm to an innocent mind, 
awaking no suspicious apprehensions, yet effectually 
lodging the insinuation there of a somewhat rigorous 
exaction on the part of God. As if in surprise and 
doubt whether such a prohibition could have been 
made, he asks, " Yea, hath God said. Ye shall not eat 
of every tree of the garden " ? The answer of the 
woman clearly evinces that the poisonous insinuation 
had at once taken, and the designed course of thought 
and feeling had been already started. Yes, we may 
eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but the one 
conspicuous tree " in the midst of the garden" is for- 
bidden ; " ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch 
it, lest ye die." We can hardly help connecting with 
these words an impatient look and querulous tone, 
which abundantly evinced a discontented spirit. The 
tempter could have had little hesitation in following 
up his purpose, by saying to such a ready temper, 
*' Ye shall not surely die." The direct contradigtion 
to God's declaration neither shocked the woman's 
sensitiveness, nor dispelled her easy delusion, but 
rather emboldened her rising presumption. 

How fully prepared had Eve now become for the 
devil's next suggestion ! There has been a selfish- 
ness on the part of God, that has made him unwill- 
ing you should attain the elevation and wisdom you 
might, lest you approach his position too nearly. 
" God doth know that in the day ye eat of it, then 
your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, 
knowing good and evil." In all this the devil at- 



88 PRIMITIVE TRIAL OF HUMANITY. 

tained what he wanted in stifling conscience and 
blinding reason to authority, by awaking hard 
thoughts of God, a vain curiosity, and selfish am- 
bition; and then the fair fruit presented to her 
passionate desire, unchecked by spiritual control, 
prompted at once to sensual gratifications. " When 
the woman saw that the tree' was good for food, and 
that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be 
desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit and 
did eat." 

The woman's sin made her at once the tempter of 
the man. Satan, through the serpent, had finished his 
temptation ; he retires, and the woman takes up his 
deceptive work. She so persuaded Adam that he 
also yielded. " She gave also to her husband with 
her, and he did eat." As in every sinful gratifica- 
tion since, so here in the first transgression, " Lust, 
or sensual appetite, when it hath conceived, bringeth 
forth sin, and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth 
death."! 

3. The Sin of Man was wholly op his own Origi- 
nation. — The devil was the first sinner, and his sin, 
in connection with the opening history of humanity, 
was at his sole responsibility. His defiance of God 
and malice towards man make his tempting act al- 
together another and darker sin than the forbidden 
gratification of sense by his victim. The curse upon 
the serpent race is to be taken as the index of God's 

' James i. 15. 



TEMPTATION AND FALL OF MAN. 39 

direct retribution upon the devil as the responsible 
agent. His first sin was not man's sin, though in 
close connection with it. The malicious temptation 
was demoniac ; the yielding to sense-gratification was 
human ; and sin entered humanity in the latter only, 
not at all in the former. Other spirits with the devil, 
and through his instigation, followed in rebellion 
against God and malignity towards man ; and the 
terrible conflict here began between man's tempter 
and man's Deliverer that is finally to issue in the 
destruction of the devil and his designs; but the 
fall of humanity was sense-gratification against con- 
scious obligation. 

The first human sin was woman's, incipiently in 
her listening and leaning to temptation, and fully con- 
summated in the outer act of eating the fruit which 
God and conscience prohibited. The sin of inducing 
Adam was Eve's, but that of assenting and eating was 
his, and in the deliberate transgressions of both the 
entire humanity was ruined. Conjunct humanity, 
created male and female, conjointly sinued and de- 
based itself in its primitive stock. The spirit sub- 
jected itself to the sense by its own act. Its trial 
was a necessity in the case itself, and required as a 
special formal arrangement by the best interest of 
man and the benevolence of God ; paternally super- 
vised and ordered by Jehovah, in a way that opened 
the best and freest occasion conceivable for confirma- 
tion in virtue, and yet eventuating in a sensual in- 
stead of a spiritual disposition. The essence of the 



40 PRIMITIVE TRIAL OF HUMANITY. 

sin and fall of humanity was in this primitive dis- 
posing of itself upon the end of sense-gratification ; 
and this could not be from any other agency than the 
human itself. The devil did not, and could not do it, 
for humanity ; God did not originate it ; man only did 
or could make himself a sinner. The mystery of ori- 
ginal sin does not lie in the subject who committed it, 
but in the Creator who made the being capable of 
originating it. And this can find its solution only in 
the consideration that, to have beings capable of vir- 
tue, involves also capability of sinning ; and, as reason 
demands the former, it must, even in sadness for the 
issue, leave the door open to the latter. 



SECTION III. 

THE CHANGES INDUCED BY THE SIN OF MAN. 

Sin has entered humanity and debased it, and in 
connection with man sin has also first reached the 
world of higher spirits, and the ruin is both wide- 
spread and dreadful. How God deals with lost angels 
we do not here inquire, although as their sin was in 
connection with his, so there is full evidence that 
God's dealings with man were designed to throw their 
influence upon other worlds. God's moral universe 
is one as truly as the material, and what occurs in one 



41 

part is to have its bearing on others ; and to angeHc 
spirits, confirmed in virtue or fallen, the field of hu- 
manity is doubtless more fully in their view, than the 
spheres in which they move are to us mortals. We 
therefore cannot learn from them, as they learn from 
God's way with us; but to us, gleams of revealed 
light disclose that good angels rejoice in man's recov- 
ery, and sinful angels are confounded at his redemp- 
tion. Principalities and powers in heavenly places 
read the manifold wisdom of God in what through 
long ages he is doing for his Church, and for the lost 
world in the extension of his mediatorial kingdom. 
The single world of human inhabitants is a spectacle 
for all intelligences. 

But while we leave other worlds to learn, as 
they may and do, from God's interpositions towards 
us, we turn with strong and saddened interest to con- 
template the changes which the introduction of man's 
sin has induced. The very knowledge of the fact 
carries wide changes with it. The conscious sinner 
is debased and ashamed in his own conviction ; and a 
disturbing blast spreads through the rank«; of those 
yet steadfast. No moral personality stands as he be- 
fore did. That has come in which all know ought not 
to have been ; and conscious feelings and solicitudes 
arise which were never stirred before. A loathing 
and abhorring of the intruding abomination seizes 
upon all the good, who would fain repel the moral 
pollution from all approach to them. Anxiety arises 
as to what is to come of it, and how God will deal 



42 PRIMITIVE TRIAL OF HUMANITY. 

with it; while the remorse and forebodings of the 
guilty are still more direful. God himself is so affect- 
ed by it that he cannot stand towards his creation as 
when no sin was in it. The change is universal and 
deplorable, and no good being can contemplate the 
sin and its consequences without rebuke and displeas- 
ure. We shall note these changes more in detail, 
having reference to the parties affected. 

1. Changes on the Part op the Fallen Man and 
Woman. 

1. The radical change is the domination of sense 
over spirit. — The gratification of the forbidden appe- 
tite was not a passionate impulse, suddenly breaking 
out in vehement intensity, and surprising to a desul- 
tory assent while the radical disposition was itself 
unchanged, but it carried the assent of the spirit, and 
so the perversion of the disposition, along with it. It 
had been a deliberate rejection of a conscious spirit- 
ual claim and a purposed acceptance of sensual indul- 
gence as the chosen good, and such a disposing of the 
spirit fixed its voluntary state and settled into perma- 
nent personal character. This is the comprehensive 
change in Adam and Eve ; they have become carnally- 
minded ; persistently inclined towards sense-indul- 
gence, and a renunciation of the self-respect and 
conscious peace which spiritual ascendency perpetu- 
ates. The animal part of humanity tyrannizes over 
the rational, and the spirit consents to the servitude, 
while every fresh indulgence leaves the spirit poor a^nd 



CHANGES INDUCED BY MAN'S SIN. 43 

empty, and so fleeing from one gratification to another 
in constant unrest, continually deluded, and necessa- 
rily never satisfied. And such a soul has already in 
it the baseness, malignity, and desperate hate and 
enmity infused by the depraved spirit. There needs 
only the check and stern rebuke of righteous author- 
ity, and the " earthly and. sensual " soul will manifest 
in the fiendishness of its spirit that it is also '' devil- 
ish." The entire selfhood is alien from God, and de- 
termined solely to self-serving and indulging. 

2. Self-respect and divine trust has changed to shame 
and fear. — The spirit knows its own baseness in con- 
senting to serve the flesh, and in this is essentially the 
blended shame and remorse of a guilty conscience. The 
spirit infuses its own bitterness into the sentient soul, 
and bites back in self-torment with every repeated in- 
dulgence. The new gratification stings with a new 
conviction of vileness, and awakens also the fore- 
boding fears of deserved retributions about to come. 
The intrinsic excellency and dignity of the spirit, 
standing in personal responsibility and integrity, 
Adam and Eve have both manifestly lost. They con- 
sent to give up personal prerogative and free self- 
possession and full responsibility for what they know 
to have been respectively their own acts, and which 
personal prerogative is above all price, and both 
admit that they have let another control them. " The 
woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me 
of the tree., and I did eat," says Adam; and "the ser- 
pent beguiled me, and I did eat," says Eve ; and so 



44 PRIMITIVE TRIAL OP HUMANITY. 

both plead the baseness of renouncing their own self- 
hood as an excuse for their sinful sensuality. In all 
that ennobles personal action and character they have 
confessedly changed, and they manifestly carry with 
them the consciousness of their degradation, and are 
their own witnesses to the world of their folly, guilt, 
and madness. For self-approbation and universal re- 
spect they have taken self reproach, divine displeasure, 
and the contempt even of the devil, their deceiver, 
and they still anticipate worse yet to come. 

3. They have fallen to a state of impotence and hope- 
lessness. — The free perversion of their disposition 
determines this. The spiritual is supernatural, and 
should control the sense, which is nature. Where 
there is only sense, from the necessary connections 
of cause and effect, the strongest impulses to gratifi- 
cation must prevail ; but the endowment of man with 
the rational, which is spiritual, takes his agency out 
of the necessities of cause-and-effect connections, and 
capacitates to resist the impulses of appetite, and 
yield to the imperatives of reason and integrity of 
spirit. Brute-will has no freedom, and must follow the 
stronger appetite ; but human will is in liberty, and 
should, as it can, comply with the claim to self-respect 
and moral worthiness. In the case of our first par- 
ents, the will has already yielded, and the personal 
spirit has taken self-gratification as the end of life, 
and so has basely bowed to the flesh and become car- 
nal ; and the carnal mind, restrained and rebuked, be- 
comes malignant, implacable, and incorrigible. The 



CHANGES INDUCED BY MAN'S SIN. 45 

perverse inclination or bent of the soul becomes set 
and steadfastly fixed by the disposition the spirit has 
given to it, and in its own way persists in the accom- 
plishment of its own purpose. The whole energy is 
intent in this one direction, and it has made itself im- 
patient to action in another direction, and therein it 
has become hopeless to any self-recovery. It chooses 
madness and folly, and will not seek, and so cannot 
find, the paths of wisdom. The man has enslaved 
himself in his selfdetermined degradation to sense, 
and his self-restoration to his abdicated dominion over 
the flesh is most hopeless. His very liberty lapses in 
chosen impotence, 

2. There were Changes towards Man on the Part 
OF God. 

1. Tliere teas manifested deep disapprobation. — Till 
now there had been nothing to move divine displeas- 
ure ; but immediately upon the fall came God's ar- 
raignment and conviction of the guilty. Their own 
consciousness of the shameful change made them 
attempt to hide from his authoritative arrest, and 
forced to the acknowledgment of fear and naked- 
ness, which was itself a clear disclosure and confes- 
sion of sin, and was followed at once by stern, vindic- 
tive retribution. .God is Absolute Reason, and his 
treatment of a sinner must be reasonable exactly. No 
passionate anger may be on one side, nor fond indul- 
gence on the other. The exposed shameful guilt of 
man w^s regarded by God with precisely deserved 



46 PRIMITIVE TRIAL OF HUMANITY. 

abhorrence. There was admitted nothing of pallia- 
tion in the apologies presented. The disobedience 
had been wholly inexcusable, and the sensuality was 
strictly condemned just in accordance with its exact 
demerit. The man and the woman had each the same 
disposition which would gratify appetite at the ex- 
pense of conscious disapprobation, and God revealed 
his equitable hatred of it. 

2. There was paternal compassion. — The change, 
just noticed, from precedent approbation to subse- 
quent disapprobation, had also this important modifi- 
cation, that it was the disapprobation of a friend ex- 
clusive of all enmity. God was still their Father, 
though they had lost the disposition of children; 
hence the deep disapprobation was mingled with 
deep paternal pity. They were the creatures of his 
power, and their being had its source in his creative 
will, and there was more and other than sovereignty 
offended ; there was fatherly goodness grieved ; and 
this last could only find an expression in ways of 
compassionate regard. The strict condemnation for 
violated authority had with it also the yearning of 
fatherly tenderness. There was no extenuation of 
man's guilt in the acquired carnal disposition, nor 
any allowance for it, as if it had been an unfortunate 
calamity merely, and not determined apostasy; but 
with all the known guilt and debasement, there was 
the pity which prompted to the interposition of all 
that might help the case, or open any measures of 
relief and deliverance. The very Reason, which in 



CHANGES INDUCED BY MAN'S SIN. 47 

its own end had made and tried humanity precisely 
as it behooved reason to do, and which was saddened 
by man's delinquency and apostasy, moved to com- 
miseration in even its intense disapprobation. 

3. From tJiis displeasure and compassion came the 
purpose of redemption. — God was both offended 
Sovereign and compassionate Father, and the sin of 
man put this double relation of God to him in such 
conflict that both could not peacefully stand together. 
The former demanded justice, the latter asked mercy. 
Absolute Reason alone saw in its profoundest depths 
the one way to put them both in harmony. As Sove- 
reign he abhors and condemns, as Father he pities 
and would spare ; and he can stand to man in no posi- 
tion which can abolish this double relation. What 
Absolute Reason must find, for his own tranquillity in 
view of man's apostasy, is some expedient to mark 
his sovereign abhorrence of sin, together with the full 
flow of fatherly compassion for the sinner ; and in the 
disturbance which sin everywhere introduces, even 
within the bosom of Absolute Reason himself, we may 
well expect the plan of human Redemption to be a 
mystery too deep for the race to receive, until many 
of its generations pass through special processes of 
divine instruction. 

The indications in inspired Scripture are clear, that 
antecedently to man's creation, in the eternal ages, 
a peculiar relationship was purposed between the 
Logos, as Son of God, and the humanity yet to be 
constituted ; and that an unprecedented covenant 



48 PRIMITIVE TRIAL OF HUMANITY. 

transaction, on the part of the Father and the Son, 
sealed to the Son complete satisfaction for a coming 
travail of spirit he was to undergo, in the possession 
of a seed that should arise, and in whose prosperity 
the pleasure of the Lord should be consummated.^ 
But if our first parents could not yet apprehend the 
presence of a spiritual tempter, much less must it 
be possible for them to comprehend the coming and 
work of a Divine Redeemer. A promise was given 
them involving the certainty of some coming de- 
liverer, and that he should be found in some future 
" seed of the woman ; " but all further peculiarities of 
character and work were left to the progressive un- 
folding of prophecy and ritual foreshadowing, till the 
actual advent and work of the Redeemer should plain- 
ly disclose God's method of " peace on earth and good 
will towards men." It was intimated that continual 
enmity would exist between man's descendants and 
the serpent race, hereafter to be interpreted as mean- 
ing the devil's hostility to man and man's Redeemer, 
and that the injury on one side would be severe, and 
on the other side fatal. " I will put enmity between 
thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her 
seed ; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise 
his heel." ^ It discloses God's attitude to man to be 
such as relieved from despair and opened future 
hope ; yet the promised redemption left abundant 
tokens of divine displeasure at man's sin, while faint- 

'Isa. liii. 2 Gen. iii. 15. 



CHANGES INDUCED BY MAN'S SIN. 49 

ly opening the light of God's gracious coming inter- 
positions. 

4. God^s open communion with man changed, to be 
only through mediation. — The opening a way of re- 
demption opened an occasion for a new probation. 
The first trial necessarily stood upon equity, giving 
an even-handed discipline in the cultivation of spirit- 
ual integrity and the control of sensual appetite. As 
this failed, eventuating in sensuality, and followed by 
a dispensation of grace resting upon a divine inter- 
position, so it behooved to open a further trial for 
humanity on this new and more favored footing. But 
here God may no longer permit man to approach him 
in open communion, and he stand to his fallen and 
sensuous creatures with unchanged tokens of his 
former satisfaction. As a sinner, God, with all his 
compassion, must disapprove and rebuke man for the 
carnal disposition he cherishes, and refuse an immedi- 
ate communion face to face in the light of his approv- 
ing smile. This was signified by his exclusion from 
the "tree of life," and the guard of flaming cheru- 
bim which barred all future approach to its fruit from 
every quarter. God's favor is life, and man, spiritual- 
ly dead in his carnal disposing, cannot appropriate 
that favor, nor taste its living peace and joy. He 
can come to it again only through the medium of the 
new dispensation of Grace, and standing before God 
in another's name, and not his own. His prayer and 
his thanksgiving, his whole worship of God and com- 
munion with him, must now be only through faith in 
4 



50 PRIMITIVE TRIAL OF HUMANITY. 

the promised mode of pardon and reconciliation. 
Hence so soon began ofi'erings and sacrifices; and 
hence the clear interpretation of God's respect to 
Abel's sacrifice, and his rejection of Cain's. The 
former looked to Grod through a Mediator, the latter 
presumed upon the direct offering of his own gift. 

5. God's dealings with man changed to blended se- 
verity and kindness. — A determined and promised 
plan of redemption afforded an adequate ground for 
God to mitigate the original threatening, and confer 
much* positive kindness, while putting man upon a 
new probation. There must be manifest severity in 
his dealings, to enforce the conviction of his displeas- 
ure against their depravity ; and this immediately 
began, by driviog the first pair from the prepared 
Paradise which had been theirs in their innocence. 
The open world, in its uncultivated ruggedness, re- 
ceived them, and its thorns and thistles blasted and 
choked the vegetation they cultivated, and forced 
them with toil and sweat to eat their bread. The 
mind was to be burdened with care, and the body 
worn with labor ; weariness, pain, and sickness must 
supervene to their exposures and privations till at 
length their fleshly tabernacle should fall again to 
the dust from whence it had been taken. In all this 
severity there is not the retribution in strict justice 
of the original threatening of eternal death, and yet 
it is a curse which even in a gracious administration 
makes " the creation groan and travail together in 
pain until now.'' 



CHANGES INDUCED BY MAN'S SIN. 51 

But though God thus manifested his abhorence of 
their sin, there were many ways in which he proved 
himself placable and graciously inclined to help their 
wretchedness and restore them from their ruin. Their 
deepest suffering was yet so far a mitigation of their 
just penalty as to teach them clearly that by so 
much •' mercy had already rejoiced against judg- 
ment," and that in their very misery God was gra- 
cious still. Many good things were left for their 
enjoyment. Shut out of Paradise, but yet living in 
a world of many offered benefits ; the earth yielded 
its harvests, though only through toil, and the brute 
bowed his neck in service, though more stubbornly 
and impatiently than before the fall. The sun shone 
and the seasons cheered, and social life offered its 
gladness, and communion with God was permitted 
through a Mediator, though no longer face to face. 
Earth was a wilderness compared with Eden, yet 
such as man might make to " bud and blossom as 
the rose." All good was forfeited, and unmingled 
evil deserved, and yet direct acts of kind care and 
help from God awakened hope and joy. The one 
recorded interposition where " the Lord God made 
coats of skin and clothed them," ^ had much more in 
it than the conferring of present relief and comfort. 
It told them plainly of God's regard for their welfare, 
and spoke strongly in present consolation, and for 
future expectation of further bounty. And this was 
doubtless but one of many instances of paternal minis- 

1 Gen. iii. 21. 



52 PRIMITIVE TRIAL OF HUMANITY. 

tration to the need of his fallen children. He was in 
it dealing with them in kindness and pity, not in 
anger ; his own hand was helping them, and reveal- 
ing him to be their benefactor, and not an inexorable 
avenger. 

3. Changes in Regard to Humanity in General. 

1. After his fall Adam ceased to act as puhlic Jieod 
of his race. — Had the first parents continued spirit- 
ually disposed, their descendants would have formed 
their disposition and fixed their character under the 
conditions which the parents of the race must have 
induced for them, and which could then have been 
more advantageous for holding sense subservient to 
the spirit than was even the arrangement made for 
Adam. The body would have been " put under and 
brought into subjection " by both man and woman ; 
God would have communed with them face to face ; 
all would have been tranquil and serene within and 
without ; and in such inner and outer conditions, it 
might strongly be expected that the successive gen- 
erations of the race would open their moral agency in 
spiritual integrity, and grow more confirmed in virtue. 
But Adam's sin closed irrevocably all such opportune 
conditions. The ascendency of sense has put his 
spirit in bondage, and all such favorable prospective 
propagation of the race from him is blasted. The first 
parents now stand condemned and excuseless ; self- 
convicted of guilt, and subject to the penalty ; and if 
justice be allowed its course, final condemnation must 



CHANGES INDUCED BY MAN'S SIN. 53 

immediately ensue ; and thus ^t once would come the 
exclusion of any posterity by the infliction of eternal 
death upon the first sinners. All this is settled for 
Adam in Adam's first transgression. If God now, as 
he does, provide a way of redemption, and by this 
open the occasion for delay of punishment, and put 
Adam upon a new form of probation, and admit the 
incoming of a rising race of descendants, this cannot 
reinstate Adam in his former pubHc headship, that 
he may act again for them as he necessarily must have 
done in his first trial. His fall has already shut up 
the bowers of Paradise, and precluded open commun- 
ion with heaven, and the harmony of fleshly appetite 
with spiritual rule ; and no subsequent act of his, 
under any form of governmental admioistration, can 
bring these advantages back for his posterity, that 
they may begin their moral agency and fix their dis- 
position and character under these favorable influences 
once ofi"ered for the race. 

What Adam, may now do 'under the new administra- 
tion of Grace, can go only for himself. If there come 
repentance, and faith, and return to allegiance, and 
thus to communion again with God, this can be for 
himself alone, and only through the mediation of the 
new covenant. He and the individuals of his pos- 
terity must each hereafter stand upon the respon- 
sibilities of personal agency. His first trial, from the 
necessity of the case, was as public head of humanity ; 
and thus in itself representative and determinative of 
the forming conditions of character for all, settling 



54 PEIMITIVE TRIAL OF HUMANITY. 

once and forever how his posterity must begin their 
spiritual agency, and under what conditions they 
must form their permanent disposition ; and now no 
other act of his can reverse the first trial, or begin any 
new trial for them. 

2. Fallen humanity will perpetuate depravity through 
the race. — Man's trial has been the most favorable for 
virtuous integrity possible, and the fact of his fall has 
left no other way open for a rising posterity but 
through a gracious provision of redemption, which 
puts man upon a new probation, where each person 
must be held liable for his own spiritual disposing. 
In all this there has been nothing arbitrary, but it is 
just what it should be to satisfy reason. To neither 
God nor man can any other way be so well, and yet 
in just this moral arrangement for the race, it will 
occur that, through human perversion of the best 
and most gracious provisions, depravity will be propa- 
gated through all generations. The first sinners, left 
to their own way, though with capacities and under 
obligation to reform and restore the spirit to its right- 
ful rule over sense, yet will never accomplish it. 
In their lapsed disposition is the will reluctating 
against the return to spirituality, and which per- 
petuates the depravity in them; and such lapse of 
the spirit under the dominion of the flesh has given 
the sense an ascendency and advantage, and has so 
aggravated and intensified its habitual control, that 
the physical propagation of the sense in the descend- 
ants will carry its inordinate carnal influences along 



55 

with it. These will be of sufficient prevalent im- 
pulse in every descendant, on the first originating of 
moral agency, to induce the spirit to yield to the 
sense, and fix the assenting disposition on the ends of 
the fleshly gratification, to the rejection of spiritual 
integrity. The first agency in moral . personality will 
thus be as certainly perverse in the posterity, as the 
subsequent acts of the first sinner in the fallen ances- 
tor will continue carnally apostate. The moving im- 
pulses of the vitiated sensibility will be alike in the 
sinning progenitor and the new ofi'spring, the state of 
the spirit alone being different. 

With the sinning parent, the flesh has its aggra- 
vated lusts, and moreover the spirit has already con- 
sented and bowed beneath its bondage, and the 
disposed will has nothing in it for reversing the 
depraved disposition; with the propagated descend- 
ant, the flesh has all the aggravated lusting impulses 
of the fallen parent, but the superinduced reason, as 
personal spirit, has not yet succumbed to the domina- 
tion of appetite, and become perverted spirit. This 
spiritual disposition the child must first set within 
itself ere it shall take the sinful character of the 
fallen parent ; and thus it is true of every descendant 
of fallen Adam, that it is his own disposing which 
fixes in him the carnal disposition of Adam, while his 
intensated sense impulses follow the law of social 
liabilities in physical propagation. The appetites 
have the aggravations of the fallen parent, but the 



56 PRIMITIVE TRIAL OF HUMANITY. 

rational spirit must consent to be in servitude to 
them, before the character can become sinfully apos- 
tate, as is that of the sinning parent. 

In this way it is true that every descendant of 
Adam has his own trial, and fixes his own disposition 
in his own consent to carnal servitude ; yet the neces- 
sary consequences of the trial and fall of the first 
sinner of the race make this free and responsible dis- 
posing a matter of certainty, that it will be a per- 
verse disposing. The aggravated appetites follow 
natural law in physical generation, and the spiritual 
disposing which might be, and ought to be, in sub- 
jecting sense with all its aggravated lusting, yet cer- 
tainly will be in basely yielding to sensual indulgence. 
A vitiated constitutional propensity to pilfer, known 
as kleptomania, sometimes manifests itself as with 
great difficulty restrained and subjected ; a child of 
a confirmed inebriate sornetimes inherits the vitiated 
impulse known as oinomania, which makes a life of 
sobriety hardly attainable ; still in each cas^ the pro- 
pensity can be restrained by a virtuous resolution ; 
so the vitiated sensibility ditfused from Adam through 
humanity goes down to the children through the 
flesh, ^nd not through the rational spirit, and in this 
case we learn both from revelation and experience, 
that all begotten of Adam, to a certainty, give the 
spirit over in bondage to this carnal lusting, if left of 
God to their own disposing. 

This sense-pravity is vitium, and not peccatum; but 



CHANGES INDUCED BY MAN'S SIN. 57 

as it originated in the personal disposing of the spirit 
in bondage to .sense bj our first parents, and the 
vitiation beginning in them is perpetuated through 
their posterity, and is now in human nature, not as 
created, but as perverted in the first transgression, it 
is truly originate vitium ; while the original sinning 
act, from which the vitium sprang, is originale pecca- 
turn. When, in theology, we speak of original sin, we 
must distinguish between vitium and peccatum, and 
apply sinful desert to the forming disposition which 
in each -descendant follows his originally vitiated 
sensibility. While, then, a natural ability for dis-, 
posing the spirit to the firm suppression and control 
of the vitiated sense, is still with the spirit itself, 
and the obligation rests upon every descendant of 
Adam so to do, yet the pravity of sense following 
the first sin gives certainty, that what might be and 
should be done will yet not be done, in any case, by 
self-movement. All are naturally liable to the neces- 
sary consequences of the progenitor's vitiated sensu- 
ality, but each is responsible morally only for his 
perversion of his own spirit. Here is no semi-pela- 
gianism, as if the connection of the first sin and all 
subsequent sin were cut half in twain ; nor any neces- 
sity for action in a pre-existing state to save personal 
freedom ; but a connection of certainty in freedom, 
that as Adam vitiated sense, so all his posterity will 
deprave their disposition, and " go astray as soon as 
they be born. 



58 PRIMITIVE TRIAL OF HUMANITY. 

3. Redemption assumes this universal certainty of a 
sinning race. — What the plan of Redemption is we 
shall further on better see ; but we can here know that 
all prospective jjealing in mercy with the race is on 
the assured ground that all will need the gracious in- 
terposition. To God, at the first, this was certain so 
soon as Adam sinned, and that the recovery of none 
could be effected but by grace, and their allegiance 
confirmed anew but by a divine redemption. The 
first Promise that the seed of the woman should 
bruise the serpent's head, while the seed of the ser- 
pent should bruise the heel only of humanity, was 
applicable to all, and carried in it the divine testi- 
mony that the consequences of the fall went down to 
coming ages, parallel with that deliverance which 
was designed to reach all ages. And so, also, the 
curses upon man and woman, spoken originally to 
Adam and Eve, were yet incJusive of all their de- 
scendants, inasmuch as the certainty of their sinning 
would involve their certain desert as truly as in the 
case of the first transgressors. The posterity did not 
actually sin in Adam's sin, but they take naturally 
and necessarily Adam's vitiated sensibility, and un- 
der this comes the certain voluntary disposing of 
the spirit in subjection to the flesh. They have no 
personal responsibilities for his act, but as natural 
descendants they have all the liabilities to the nat- 
ural consequences of such act, and must of necessity 
dispose their spirit and fix their own character under 
the consequent conditions of Adam's act. The as- 



CHANGES INDUCED BY MAN'S SIN. 59 

sumption of the certainty of their sinning is not that 
they are made sinners by any other, and only the 
fore-affirming of the fact, that through the aggrava- 
tions of the vitiated sense they will all make them- 
selves to be sinners. The vitium is natural, the 
pecoatum is moral and personal. 

4. The first trial failing, a remedial system must 
stand on '^ better promises.^' — Paternal kindness seeks 
deliverance for lost humanity, and changes the mode 
of administering discipline to the race, and this mode 
must have advantages over the former, and include 
stronger influences for virtue, in order to justify 
its introduction. Why even divine pity attempt 
anything further, if there is not ground for higher 
encouragement than . in the failing administration ? 
God must uphold the integrity of his own char- 
acter, in having arranged a mode of trial which 
has failed, and must find weightier motives on the 
side of a spiritual disposing and control over sense, 
than the first arrangement offered ; in which case 
nothing will hinder his fatherly love in changing his 
dealings with man from the demands of equity to the 
solicitations of compassion. 

Inasmuch as we find the race perpetuated and mul- 
tiplying its generations over the earth, and as we 
find patience prolonged and grace sparing the con- 
victed and condemned, we are obliged to conclude 
that God has in some way vindicated his name and 
authority, and put intenser impulses at work to 
bring the spirit over the flesh, and therein finally 



60 PRIMITIVE TRIAL OF HUMANITY. 

justifying himself to every conscience, in his won- 
derful, and wholly otherwise unprecedented, remedial 
measures for lost man's redemption. This remedial 
administration immediately supervened upon the first 
apostasy, and a history thence opens full of hope for 
man, and of interest and astonishment for other orders 
of spirits ; and which, in fact, must reveal the secret 
counsel and purpose of God in peopling our earth, 
and settling upon it a race of flesh and blood, and 
yet endowed with the prerogatives of rationality. 
We know, at the start, that this history must bring 
out God's vindication of wisdom and righteousness 
in his way of saving the lost ; and we shall not better 
comprehend how this can be, than by noting the long 
providential interpositions, which have taught the na- 
tions how God has put his hand into human history, 
for the redemption of the race from sensuality, to 
pure spiritual integrity and dignity. The degrada- 
tion of mankind is so deep, that long centuries of dis- 
cipline and instruction scarcely suffice to bring the 
race to know and choose the only method of recovery. 
We are to study the history as God's development of 
his own plan of salvation for man. 



SPECIAL PROVIDENCES CURBING DEPRAVITY. 61 



CHAPTER II. 

THE REDEEMER MUST PREPARE HUMANITY 
FOR HIS COMING INCARNATION. 

The fall of man has left him in a state of degrada- 
tion and ruin, from which there is nothing in human- 
ity to effect deliverance. The carnal mind will never 
from itself return to its spiritual subjection, nor can 
the human spirit ever atone for its wilful sensuality. 
Another than man must come to men, and work out 
their deliverance, and the moving spring and efficient 
execution for this can nowhere be found, but in the 
abhorrence for sin and pity for the sinner which is 
in God himself. We have seen already the neces- 
sity for a threefold conscious voluntariness in Abso- 
lute Reason, that he may be known in Creation, and 
in governmental Administration ; and equally is tri- 
personality necessary to know God in Redemption, 
The original eternal plan is of the Father ; the man- 
ifesting this in human flesh is of the Son ; and the 
execution of it, in the human heart and the universal 
church, is of the Holy Ghost. The same Reason 
which creates also redeems, and the One Absolute 
Reason can be known in human redemption only in 
this distinctive being and working of threefold con- 



62 HUMANITY AWAITING REDEMPTION. 

sciousness and will. Essence, in pure simplicity, can 
be conceived neither as creative nor redemptive. 

The first promise to fallen man assured him that a 
Conqueror of his tempter should come, as in some 
way the seed of the woman ; but this promise in later 
scripture is shown as resting upon an earlier transac- 
tion in the counsels of the Godhead. The reference 
before made to the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah shows 
that this Conqueror was to be a suffering Saviour, since 
** it pleased the Lord to bruise him; '' and that " he 
shall see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied;" 
and in these divine counsels, before all time, the 
pledge was given that this suffering Saviour was to 
be a victorious Sovereign, having a spiritual seed to 
serve him. And in Psalms we have the announce- 
ment of this eternal pledge and counsel, " I will de- 
clare the decree ; the Lord hath said unto me, Thou 
art my Son ; this day have I begotten thee." ^ It might 
have been anticipated, as in these revealed eternal 
counsels it is found to be, that the Logos as the 
second Person, or expressive manifester of the Father, 
would be the Redeemer of lost humanity, and that 
antecedent to his coming into humanity, he would 
prepare the race for his utterly unexampled mission. 
In Creation there is declared the glory of God, but in 
Redemption the divine wisdom and majesty are even 
more profoundly glorious. The race must be first 
disciplined and trained before they can receive the 
great mystery of God manifest in the flesh. We 

* Psalm ii. 7. 



SPECIAL PROVIDENCE CURBING DEPRAVITY. 63 

need not, then, wonder at the intervening thousands 
of years between the promise and the coming ; but 
in all the long history before the Christian era, we 
shall find the Logos, Jehovah himself, working in and 
upon the nations to prepare them for his successful 
coming and teaching as their Redeemer. The same 
divine Personality which enters human flesh, enters 
beforehand into human history, and integrates him- 
self with the rape, that he may bring them up to ap- 
prehend the meaning and the mercy of his incarna- 
tion. His human living and dying will be in vain, 
without his previous moulding and educating of the 
humanity he redeems. 



SECTION I. 



SPECIAL PROVIDENCES CURBING IN THE STRONG TEN- 
DENCIES TO IMPIETY AND VIOLENCE. 

Man, fallen under the control of sensuality, did not 
like to retain God in his knowledge, and the first 
tendencies of depraved humanity were towards ir- 
religion and open atheism. The excited appetites 
prompted passionately to gratification, and in the 
selfishness of each, the weak were made the prey 
of the strong, and the quick result was the spread 
of violence and crime. " All flesh corrupted his way 



64 HUMANITY AWAITING REDEMPTION. 

upon the earth/' and the imagination, thought, and 
plan of the race became evil continually. The carnal 
mind was darkened, and the selfish heart was har- 
dened. The ordinances and institutions of Paradise 
tending to purity and piety were overborne and per- 
verted, and what would have been his safeguard in 
virtue became the provocative to all licentiousness 
in his depravity. God had said to the first pair in 
their innocence, " Be fruitful and multiply, and re- 
plenish the earth ; " designing the propagation of the 
race under the restraints of marriage, and the genial 
sympathies of the family, but which was early prosti- 
tuted to practices of polygamy, adultery, and pro- 
miscuous licentiousness. In the early vigor of the 
race and the unchecked indulgence of sexual passion, 
the earth was over-rapidly peopled by exorbitant 
births and prodigious longevity, so that communities 
and tribes, multiplying and enlarging faster than they 
could be socially disciplined and civilized, and seek- 
ing their territorial habitations at their own pleasure, 
interfered with and encroached upon each other, and 
at once opened in the savage practices of rapine, war, 
and enslavement of captives. The Sabbath had been 
instituted in the period of man's unsinning com- 
munion with God ; and immediately upon the fall 
the way of sacrificial worship had been instituted, 
resting all access to God by the sinner upon the me- 
diation of the coming expiatory death of the Saviour,; 
but the growing masses of mankind carried their apos- 
tasy to utter rejection of all forms of religious devo- 



SPECIAL PROVIDENCE CURBING DEPRAVITY. 65 

tion. Abel offered his acceptable sacrifice " by faith '' 
in coming atoning blood ; Seth and his posterity " called 
on the name of the Lord ; " and Enoch '^ walked with 
God," and was translated; but the multitude dis- 
carded God, and wrought wickedness. The First-born 
among men slew the first Brother that was begotten, 
out of spite to God's regard for his expiatory offer- 
ing : and so onward, infidelity towards God and crime 
towards man increasingly abounded, till " it repented 
the Lord that he had made man upon the earth," so 
hopeless of all reformation had the corrupt race made 
themselves before him. 

Such general incorrigible impiety and vice de- 
manded an interposing rebuke, as signally and wide- 
ly indicative of God's displeasure and determination 
to arrest and restrain it. The first ebullitions of de- 
praved sensuality were the most violent, and the cor- 
recting restraints were proportionally severe. Suc- 
cessive applications of discipline correct the growing 
generations, and curb the varied modes of outbreak- 
ing sensuality, till at length the ages come to such a 
measure of culture, that the Redeemer may enter 
into humanity, and penetrate, and purify it with a 
new spiritual life. His corrections are always equal 
and appropriate to the enormity of the offences. 

1. The World overwhelmed by the Flood. — As 

in the first trial, so in the first peopling of the earth, 

God put man in the most favoring circumstances for 

the ends in view, and left the issue to man's responsi- 

5 



6Q HUMANITY AWAITING REDEMPTION. 

bility. But one family only of all the tribes of the 
human race had maintained the knowledge and wor- 
ship of the true God, while the uaiversal irreligion 
and profligacy of the rest of the world had made it 
manifest that fallen man would pervert those favor- 
ing circumstances, and that no discipline of ordinary 
providences would prepare humanity to profit by 
the introduction of the designed plan of redemption. 
Present wickedness, and the warning of coming gen- 
erations, demanded a terrible judgment. God thus 
forewarned the race that "the end of all flesh had 
come ; '' and that he would " destroy them with the 
earth." One hundred and thirty years he delayed 
the desolating flood, while Noah preached righteous- 
ness to that generation, and prepared the Ark for the 
salvation of his family. But none heeded the warn- 
ing, nor repented of their sins, and God's patience 
found its limit. " The windows of heaven were 
opened, and the fountains of the great deep were 
broken up ; " " and the flood came and took them all 
away ; " " and all flesh died that moved upon the 
earth." " And Noah only remained alive, and they 
that were with him in the Ark." Noah and wife, and 
his three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and their 
wives, were saved to begin a new peopling of the 
earth, under the more encouraging circumstances 
which the dreadful judgment had induced. 

In many respects, the second spread of human 
population upon the earth was more favorable than 
when immediately from the first fallen pair. The 



SPECIAL PROVIDENCE CURBING DEPRAVITY. 67 

terrible example of human wickedness and God's deal- 
ing with it were before the eyes of men ; the mercy 
in the covenant that such destruction would not be 
repeated, and which the natural bow upon the rain- 
cloud was made to symbolize ; and the religious order 
and control prevalent in the godly families saved over 
from the old world ; and the manifestly greater care- 
fulness in fixing the dwelling-places of the growing 
tribes and nations for mutual safety and general ad- 
vantage and friendship, — all tended to individual im- 
provement and public peace and harmony. In their 
separate journeyings and colonizing, they still strove 
to keep up monuments of common interest, and bonds 
for persistent communion in towers and public edifices. 

2. The Shortening of Human Life in its Succes- 
sive Generations. — An average duration of human 
life before the flood, following Hebrew chronology, 
had been about nine hundred years. Noah lived six 
hundred years before the flood, and three hundred and 
fifty years after it. But immediately after the deluge 
the ages of men upon the earth were gradually short- 
ened to the time of Moses. We have the record of 
those in the direct line from Shem to Abraham, and 
these may be taken as fair examples of the longevity 
of other Shemitic families, as well as those descend- 
ing from Ham and Japheth. The life of Shem was 
continued to six hundred years, being one third 
shorter than the average antediluvian life. Arphaxad 
lived four hundred and thirty-eight years, and from 



68 HUMANITY AWAITING REDEMPTION. 

him to Nahor, the father of Terah, and grandfather of 
Abraham, were six generations, by which time we 
have for his life one hundred and forty-eight years. 
His son Terah lived longer, to two hundred and five 
years, but Abraham's life was one hundred and seven- 
ty-five years; and thence to Moses, we have his 
own life of one hundred and twenty years; but in 
Psalm xc, referred to the time of Moses, the set time 
for the age of man is seventy years, and, in cases of 
more vigorous constitution, eighty years, at which point 
ic has since remained through human generations. 

Whatever may have been the proximate physiologi- 
cal tendency to diminished longevity, the great moral 
reason is to be seen in its influence on the govern- 
ment and discipline of the race. The long antedi- 
luvian ages were ministering occasions to the great 
wickedness of the old world. Sensuality had room 
to mature and execute its selfish schemes in the 
broadest manner, and the distance of anticipated 
death emboldened in indulgence and confirmed in 
habits of licentious excess and wanton iniquities. The 
death of the body, as the curse for the fall, was a. 
merciful mitigation of the original penalty of eternal 
death for sin, and designed to hold the race under 
perpetual admonition of God's great displeasure 
against the transgression of the first pair, and a salu- 
tary restraint of controlling sensuality in coming 
ages. But this deferring the return of man to dust, 
through long centuries, had only eventuated in his 
fully setting his heart to do evil. The experience 



SPECIAL PEOVIDENCE CURBING HUMANITY. 69 

proved that a race of sinners, living a thousand years 
on the earth, could not be brought by any ordinary 
moral discipline to such a state of moral preparation 
that the promised Redeemer could come to them with 
any expectation of their acceptance of his salvation. 
But this cutting short of human life by nine tenths of 
its duration was a most powerful and largely success- 
ful means of bridling human lust and passion, and 
forcing a depraved race to feel their need of the 
coming of a gracious Deliverer. That the early post- 
diluvian generations might more rapidly repeople the 
desolated world, this contraction of the life of man 
was graduated through several centuries ; yet by the 
tenth and twelfth generations, the old nearly thou- 
sand years of human probation had been shortened to 
threescore years and ten. By thus heavily pressing 
the fact of mortality constantly upon human convic- 
tion, there has been a continual gracious influence in 
keeping up a seed to serve the Lord 

3. Guarding Human Life from Violence by Cap- 
ital Punishment. — In connection with the permis- 
sion to man to eat animal flesh as food after the flood, 
was the caution to abstain from eating the blood. All 
flesh was delivered into the hand of man ; but as pre- 
ventive of all wanton cruelty, and a guard from sav- 
age ferocity, blood, as the representative of life, was 
marked with special sanctity. And then, more effec- 
tually to restrain the violence between man and man, 
which had been so prevalent before the flood, God 



TO HUMANITY AWAITING REDEMPTION. 

took occasion from this prohibiting the use of animal 
blood, to require capital punishment for the malicious 
shedding of human blood. " At the hand of every 
man's brother will I require the life of man. Whoso 
sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed ; 
for in the image of God made he man." ^ Governmental 
execution of capital punishment, properly adminis- 
tered^ will not deprave public sentiment, but impress 
upon it salutary awe and veneration, w^hile the with- 
holding of the punishment of death by civil process, 
in case of murder, tends to provoke the excited neigh- 
borhood to sudden vengeance by their own hands. 
The death-penalty should be most carefully and sol- 
emnly administered, but the forfeited life of the mur- 
derer should be taken lawfully, when outraged public 
sentiment is endangered to bloody vindication with- 
out law. If public sentiment may be so cultivated 
and elevated as to hold itself calm and orderly under 
milder forms of penal execution, capital punishment 
may then be abolished. But from the flood till now, 
humanity in no community has seemed to rise above 
the terrible necessity of legally exacting life for life. 
In view of the sad experience of the old -world 
from incorrigible crime and violence, it cannot be 
soberly doubted that the introduction of capital pun- 
ishment by divine requisition was salutary and benev- 
olent. It did not exclude all malice prepense from 
issuing in murder, but it did check much maliciousness, 
and hold back from many murders. It could not 

' Gcu. ix. 5, G. 



SPECIAL PROVIDENCE CURBING HUMANITY. 71 

again be said, in any generation of Noah's descend- 
ants guarded by this legal sanction, as it was true 
of the old world, that " the earth was filled with vio- 
lence." Combined civil authority restrained individ- 
ual malignity. 

4. Confounding their Language. — Under these 
restraining and remedial influences, the descendants 
of Noah, through his sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, 
multiplied in the earth, and lived in harmony among 
themselves. The salutary dread from the remem- 
bered deluge, and traditionary accounts and long per- 
petuated traces of it, kept alive the recognition of 
God and reverence for his authority. The multiply- 
ing families kept much in company, though roving 
from place to place. This continued through two or 
three centuries, all of one speech and preserving kin- 
dred cordiality and friendship ; a great improvement 
in social life from that of the old world, but yet tend- 
ing to evils of another kind and in the opposite direc- 
tion. They chose to keep together, and thus would 
preclude many benefits from agriculture, enterprise, 
and separate national interests. It became necessary 
that there should be a special interposition for dif- 
fusing the population abroad into separate communi- 
ties. This took place in the time of Peleg, as it is 
noted that " in his days was the earth divided." 

Peleg was born ninety-seven years after the flood, 
and he lived two hundred and thirty-nine years ; so 
that at least within about three centuries from the 



72 HUMANITY AWAITING REDEMPTION. 

flood the families of man were again spreading wide 
abroad in the earth. The general history is thus 
given by inspiration: They were journeying all to- 
gether " from the east/' and came to " a plain in the 
land of Shinar." Here seemed a convenient place 
for their common abode, and they found abundant ma- 
terials for the brick and mortar with which to build a 
city. To make the city a more important monument 
of common renown, and hold the people from scatter- 
ing abroad, they built also a tower, whose top, in ex- 
aggerated speech, they meant " should reach unto 
heaven." Scattered tribes of common speech ere long 
make changes in the language, beyond the capability 
of mutual conversation ; but here the problem was, to 
get the people of common speech in separate commu- 
nities. They took determined means to hold them- 
selves together. Jehovah, in his power and wisdom, 
reversed the natural process, and made their speech 
unintelligible among themselves, and thus obliged 
them to separate into different clans, according to their 
capability of using a common dialect. So were they 
necessarily sundered, and the difierent portions of 
the earth inhabited, and the common city and tower 
in the plain of Shinar deserted of at least the most of 
their builders. This gave the name Babel — confu- 
sion — to the tower in subsequent generations. So 
all the varied descendants of Japheth, and Ham, and 
Shem, " every one of them after his tongue," were 
divided in their countries and nations. Nimrod, " a 
mighty hunter from the Lord," had his kingdom from 



SPECIAL PROVIDENCE CURBING HUMANITY. 73 

Babel, and comprising many other cities which he 
built ; Ashur built Nineveh on the Tigris, and other 
towns ; and so Canaan, and Philistia, and Egypt, and 
the wide " isles of the Gentiles," were inhabited. 

All these nations were now in their forming state, 
and the elements of the coming great Assyrian 
empire were gathering; and when at length these 
and other independent kingdoms emerge into the 
light of history, they are found with settled laws and 
established institutions, recognizing civil rights and 
religious obligations. The atheism and savage vio- 
lence prevalent at the time of the flood were super- 
seded, and a more elevated and cultivated population 
had been secured by the special and providential 
interpositions of the Lord ; and yet their civilization 
was but little removed from barbarism, and their 
religion was superstitious and idolatrous. Polytheism 
generally prevailed, and among the tribes of Shem, 
who more conservatively retained the faith of mono- 
theism, even here, universally, so far as appears, the 
believers in one God were so far degenerated and 
paganized, that they joined in the general practices 
of idolatry. Even Terah, Abraham's father, and his 
contemporaries, " served other gods.'^^ Some new 
method of discipline must cure this idolatry. 

' Josh. xxiv. 2. 



74 HUMANITY AWAITING REDEMPTION. 



SECTION II. 

THE CALL OF ABRAHAM. 

Humanity had attained the age and condition when 
general providences and special interpositions of 
judgment and mercy applied to all, or occurring 
promiscuously amid the varied families and nations of 
the earth, would not preserve the race from continued 
degeneracy in sensuality and false religion. If its 
sensuality tolerate any religion, it must be such as 
submits to be subservient to the flesh. The very 
gods it worships will have the passions and practices 
which itself delights to cherish. It will not recognize 
deity as a spirit, and worship him in spirit, but will 
have sensual media obscuring his pure spirituality, 
and ultimately tolerating the thought that God is 
such a one as itself It is the age of idolatry, and in 
that point and period of its cultivation and experience, 
humanity will everywhere tend to nature-worship, 
hero-worship, or image-worship, and all connected 
cruel and debasing superstitions. 

The wise expedient divinely taken is, to concentrate 
special instruction and influence upon one nation, 
which shall secure their acknowledgment and worship 
of the true God, and set this peculiar people conspicu- 



CALL OP ABRAHAM. 75 

ously among the nations as a missionary people for 
the world. But no one race or nation can at the 
time be found distinctively spiritual and godly enough 
to set forth as the teacher of the world ; and the neces- 
sary process is to begin with one Man, and lay ac- 
cumulating influences enough on him and his rising 
descendants to make and keep them a special people 
for the Lord. The end in view is the elevation of the 
race, and not partiality and favoritism for the chosen 
people ; and for the sake of the whole, that man must 
be taken which omniscience shall see shall secure the 
end best and surest for all. 

In making such selection God designated Abram,' 
a son of Terah, the eighth in descent from Shem, the 
son of Noah. The native place of Terah was in Ur 
of the Chaldees ; but on removing from Chaldea to go 
into the land of Canaan, he journeyed so far as to the 
north-western border of Mesopotamia, and built a city 
for his followers, calling it Haran, after a son, who 
had died and been buried in Chaldea. This was his 
subsequent residence and burial-place, and the early 
home of Abram and country of his kinsmen. Here, 
when Abram was seventy-five years old, the Lord said 
to him, " Get thee out of thy country, and from thy 
kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that 
I shall tell thee. And I will make of thee a great 
nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name 
great, and thou shalt be a blessing ; and I will bless 
them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee ; 
and in thee shall all the families of the earth be 



76 HUMANITY AWAITING REDEMPTION. 

blessed." ^ Abram obeyed, and with bis family and 
substance carried out his father's old intention of 
removing to Canaan ; and upon bis arrival at Sychem, 
in the land of Canaan, the Lord again appeared to 
him, and promised to give the land in which he was 
to his seed.2 After having journeyed in different 
directions in the land with his family and substance, 
and Lot, his brother's son, and built altars to God 
where he rested ; and having also, on occasion of a 
famine, been down to Egypt, and returned again to 
Canaan with great wealth, and when Lot had sepa- 
rated from him to dwell in the plain of the Jordan ; 
Jehovah again promised him the land for his seed 
with greater particularity. " Lift up now thine eyes, 
and look from the place where thou art, northward 
and southward, and eastward and westward ; for all 
the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and 
to thy seed forever. And I will make thy seed as the 
dust of the earth; so that if a man can number 
the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be 
numbered." ^ 

The import of this Abrahamic promise needs to be 
carefully noted. It was in substance repeated to him, 
and subsequently to his son Isaac, and again to Jacob, 
and through following centuries was the basis of 
religious life and Christian expectation. The Old 
Testament church rested upon it, and the New Testa- 
ment church is in fulfilment of it. In one part, it 
was an enlarged repetition of the promise to Adam 

' Gcu. xii. 1-3. 2 Qgjj xii. 7. " Gen. xiii. 14-16. 



CALL OP ABRAHAM. 77 

after his fall, and renewed to Noah through Shem 
after the flood, that some great deliverer from the 
curse of sin should come in the seed of Eve. Here, 
to Abram, who had descended from Shem, it was par- 
ticularized that the deliverance should be from his 
seed, and for all the nations of the earth. And an- 
other part promised a national possession of Canaan, 
and an innumerable posterity. The last national 
part was preparatory and subsidiary to the univer- 
sal spiritual part. The national part was clear and 
full ; the spiritual part made the first promise at the 
fall more clear and full, but no one was yet able to see 
in it what the apostle Paul drew from it — " He saith 
not. And to seeds, as of many, but. Unto thy seed, 
which is Christ." ^ Besides frequent repetitions of 
the promise, there were significant interpositions and 
institutions in connection with it, giving prominence 
to the importance with which God regarded it: 
once, by instituting a special sacrifice, and giving 
a remarkable signal of his presence ; ^ again, by 
changing his name Abram to Abraham ; ^ and then, 
again, by the ordinance of circumcision.* On this 
promise the hope of a lost world rested. 

1. Means for securing Abraham's Faith and De- 
votion TO God. — As the ancestor of the chosen 
nation, Abraham must be made eminently a man of 
God. He had already been taken away from the 

^ Gal. iii. 16. ^ Gen. xv. 9-17. 

^ Gen. xvii. 6. "* Gen. xvii. 9-14. 



78 HUMANITY AWAITING REDEMPTION. 

idolatries of Haran, and made to be a pilgrim and 
stranger in Canaan, and had thus been thrown upon 
the sole protection of God, who had intimately be- 
friended him ; and this pilgrimage life was perpetu- 
ated to the end of his days. The land was promised 
to his seed, but he had no possessions in it, save the 
purchased burial-place of the cave of Machpelah. He 
was greatly prospered in flocks, and herds, and nu- 
merous servants, but he constantly wandered from 
place to place.^ And then there was the long defer- 
ring of children, apparently inducing the expectation 
that the heirship must come by ,adoption.2 Then 
Ishmael is born, and Abraham would have God ac- 
cept him, for Sarah has been barren, and is now 
aged. Then Isaac is promised of Sarah,^ and again 
the time of his birth is foretold,^ and at the set time 
he is born, Abraham a hundred and Sarah ninety 
years old. And then, at the destruction of Sodom 
for the great wickedness of the people, God com- 
munes with Abraham, and hears his requests and 
conditions for sparing the place if at length ten 
righteous persons could be found in it ; and saves 
Lot from the overthrow ; and more signally tries his 
faith, by demanding the sacrifice of Isaac ; and fur- 
ther confirms it, by substituting a ram providentially 
supplied as the sacrificial victim.^ The result of- all 
God's discipline was, notwithstanding manifest faults 
in Abraham's life a steady-growing confidence in God 

^ Acts vii. 6. 2 Qgn^ ^v. 2-4. ^ Gen. xvii. 19. 

* Gen. xviii. 10. ^ Gen. xxii. 13. 



CALL OF ABRAHAM. 79 

and fidelity in his service, to the attainment of that 
eminence in piety which made him worthy to be 
known as " the father of the faithful." 

2. Influences on Abraham's Descendants in the 
Line of the Promise. — Patriarchal government had 
continued from Noah to Abraham, whereby the au- 
thority and influence of the ancestors largely moulded 
the character and conduct of the descendants. To 
secure the piety of Abraham was thus to secure a 
patriarchal blessing upon his posterity. God strong- 
ly depended on this to prepare the way of Covenant 
descent in holiness. He says, " For I know him, that 
he wiJl command his household and his children after 
him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord to do 
justice and judgment, that the Lord may bring upon 
Abraham that which he hath spoken of him." ^ Ac- 
cordingly, in addition to the pious nurture and edu- 
cation of Isaac, care was taken for his marriage con- 
nection in the family of Nahor, Abraham's brother, 
by which Rebekah more favorably came within the 
privileges and under the obligations of the Covenant 
than could have been anticipated from any of the 
daughters of the Canaanites. To pious patriarchal 
government was added such a providential arrange- 
ment as made the progress towards a nation gradual, 
and very slow in the early generations of the patri- 
archs. The bearing of this upon the virtue of the 
national stock becomes strikingly apparent. 

^ Gen. xviii. 19. 



80 HUMANITY AWAITING REDEMPTION. 

Abraham had been called in Covenant at seventy- 
five years of age, and remained for years childless; 
and when Ishmael is born he is rejected from the 
promise, and Isaac is not born and taken into the 
Covenant till Abraham is one hundred years old. 
All this, we have seen, tried and ultimately strength- 
ened the faith of the first heir of the promise. And 
the like delay still continues. Of the children of 
Isaac, Esau is rejected, and Jacob designated as the 
heir to the Covenant. For about one hundred years 
no multiplication is made of the Covenant descend- 
ants. Isaac singly perpetuates the line to Jacob, and 
Jacob stands alone till his children succeed, and from 
him all the posterity are reckoned. Why not push on 
this national arrangement more rapidly ? To human 
view it might seem needful to hasten, but here, as 
often, it is manifest that God does not make haste, 
and the reason appears in the connected events. The 
Ishmaelites and the various tribes descended from 
Abraham by Keturah all soon forget the God of their 
father, and become idolaters. Esau's posterity all de- 
generate, and become absorbed in the general pagan 
superstitions. The great design in the Abrahamic 
Covenant matures as fast as the depravity of human- 
ity in this age of the world will allow. By concen- 
trating special influences upon Abraham, he is made 
strong in righteousness ; by giving Isaac ease and 
peace, and kindly nurture all his life, he becomes a 
single link in the pious succession ; and by throwing 
Jacob into exile, and making him pass through con- 



EGYPT AS THE HEBREWS' ABODE. 81 

stant trials, and endure hardness all his days, he is 
made an appropriate stock, in which the twelve 

tribes of Israel branch off, and begin their hasten- 

■ 
ing to the promised " great nation." And how cer- 
tain does it now appear, that the multiplication is as 
rapid as the race will bear ! How hardly does the 
expanded surface hold the strain of the inward de- 
pravity ! Iniquity comes in to the chosen people like 
a flood. Reuben commits incest with Bilhah, and 
Judah with Tamar ; Dinah gives herself up in forni- 
cation with Shechem, a Canaanitish prince ; Simeon 
and Levi treacherously slay all the Shechemites, and 
plunder their substance; and all the brethren join 
in hatred to Joseph, and conspire to sell him to the 
Ishmaelites, and deceive Jacob to believe that he had 
been slain by a wild beast. The chosen stock can- 
not endure further growth, but it must have further 
purging and pruning. 



SECTION III. 



EGYPT, AND THE GOING DOWN OF THE ISRAELITES 
INTO IT. 

Beside the dangers to the Covenant people from 
their own augmenting depravity, it is difficult to see 
how, without perpetual miraculous interpositions, they 
could be preserved to grow up to a nation among the 



82 HUMANITY AWAITING REDEMPTION. 

Canaanites. God's purpose concerning them was 
publicly known, and both on their own account and 
as a warning and means of instruction to the -Gentile 
nations, the great Abrahamic promise must be kept 
prominent and often referred to. This would neces- 
sarily subject them to the jealousy and exterminating 
hatred of the doomed nation. The spirit which sub- 
sequently instigated Herod to slay the male children 
of Bethlehem would be excited, and in order to de- 
feat the purpose would destroy the chosen people 
in their weakness. The way divine wisdom secured 
the result was to make a lodgment of the Hebrew 
family within the protection of the most powerful 
kingdom of the earth. Egypt was too strong to per- 
mit any or all the Canaanite nations to disturb Israel, 
and the interest of the Egyptians would secure the 
growing people from external or internal injury. 
From their long abode in Egypt it will be needful 
somewhat minutely to describe it. 

There are so many monuments of the earlier ages 
still existing in the land of Egypt, so much interest 
has been awakened by the at least quite extensive 
deciphering of their old hieroglyphical inscriptions, 
and such learned and careful explorations have been 
made with the modern facilities for tourists to visit 
the tombs and temples of the Nile, that there is now 
little difficulty, connected with the accounts of old 
geographers and historians, in attaining much satis- 
factory knowledge of this oldest and strongest em- 
pire of its day in our world, though still more of its 



EGYPT AS THE HEBREWS' ABODE. 83 

ancient history and internal experience has been 
irrecoverably lost from any modern research. 

1. The Settlement and Growth of Egypt. — Egypt 
is known in Scripture as " the land of Ham." It can- 
not be certainly, nor perhaps probably, said that Ham 
ever entered the Egyptian valley ; but his second son, 
Mizraim, with his descendants after their tongues, 
went there from the plain of Shinar, immediately 
after the confusion of language at Babel. In ancient 
historic notices Egypt is acknowledged as the land 
of Mizraim, which name Syncellus writes Mestraim, 
and which, as first king of Egypt, Herodotus, Manetho, 
and Diodorus write Blenes. These old historians, and 
especially Herodotus, have generally increasing mod- 
ern credit, and are confirmed by general accordance 
in their representations with the Bible history. 
. Herodotus says Menes built Memphis, after having 
reclaimed its site from the river by artificial embank- 
ments. The river is first known in history as Egyp- 
tus, and upon reaching it in their westward migra- 
tion through the isthmus on the east, Mizraim and 
his followers passed upwards to this more elevated 
part of the valley, and built here their first perma- 
nent dwellings. In a few years the best situations on 
each side of the river would naturally become thriv- 
ing towns, and soon some Avould be populous^ cities. 
Thus with On eastward und Memphis westward of 
the river, the former given in Grecian history as 
Heliopolis, or City of the Sun, and both retaining 



84 HUMANITY AWAITING REDEMPTION. 

monumental proofs of similar early antiquity. As the 
first patriarch gave name to the whole land, so the 
sub-patriarchs of the tribes which settled in different 
directions gave their names to their portions of the 
country. The region from Memphis upwards to a 
considerable distance was the land of Noph, from 
Naphtuhim; the lower part and the Delta was the 
land of Zoan, or Zanam, from Anamim ; and the The- 
baid, or upper Egypt, was the land of Paphros, from 
Pathrusim. These*were three sons of Mizraim;^ and 
another son, Caslnhim, had Philistim, who settled the 
south-eastern shore of the Mediterranean, stopping on 
the way of the family-migration, or going up as a later 
colony from Egypt. 

Such sub-patriarchal divisions gave many separate 
chieftains, who became each the king of his tribe ; 
and thus came the early dynasties, with their several 
kings, which are found in later descriptions of the. 
Egyptian government. Such consecutive dynasties, 
and the aggregate number and years of the particular 
kings, as these records present, can find no consis- 
tency in any acknowledged chronology; but if, as 
above, they were only partially successive to, and 
frequently concurrent with, each other, their dynastic 
history is readily explicable. The list of separate 
kings is given quite variously by different authors, 
such as Herodotus, Diodorus, Manetho, the Old Chron- 
icle, and Eratosthenes, partially conforming in some 
names, yet in no way can they be made entirely con- 

' G€n. X. 13, 14. 



EGYPT AS THE HEBREWS' ABODE. 85 

sisteut together. They agree in Menes, which is 
Mizraim, as the first king, but are widely discordant 
in later reigns. Reference is most frequently had 
to the dynasties of Manetho, an Egyptian priest of 
Sebennytus, two hundred and eighty years before the 
Christian era, and near one hundred years after the 
last or thirtieth dynasty had run out in Nectanebes 
II., when followed the Persian conquest of Egypt by 
Ochus, known as Artaxerxes III. The dynasties of 
Manetho are numbered, and mostly give particular 
names, and the years they reigned ; but in the earlier 
instances many names are omitted, and not unfre^ 
quently the dynasty has only the aggregate years of 
all, with no name specified. The deciphered hiero- 
glyph! cal names of Egyptian monarchs on the monu- 
ments are, however, so frequently like the names of 
the kings in Manetho's dynasties, that the monuments 
add credit to the historic record, and the two become 
somewhat mutually explanatory and confirmatory. 

Bunsen (Egypt's Place in History) puts with 
great positiveness the settlement and civilization of 
Egypt at a much earlier date than Menes. He as- 
sumes to rely on " Egyptian monuments, records, and 
traditions " for proof that the valley of the Nile was 
peopled as early as 10,000 B. C. ; and Lepsius before 
him had assigned an earlier period still ; and Renan 
has recently put the age of Egypt even yet further 
back ; all alleging the necessity of a longer time than 
the Hebrew chronology, or ordinary history, allows for 
so great national development as is evinced in the build- 



86 HUMANITY AWAITING REDEMPTION. 

ing of the pyramids and Egyptian men amen ts. From 
Noah to Abraham in Hebrew chronology is but about 
four hundred years ;^ but the Greek chronology of 
the Septuagint gives about thirteen hundred years. 
These chronologies must have been in accordance 
in the age of Christ, since the Saviour and evangelists 
quote from the Septuagint, and Luke's genealogy fol- 
lows the Septuagint peculiarities, in open communi- 
cation with the Jews. One must since have been 
lengthened, or the other shortened; and much the 
most probable is it that the old Rabbis shortened 
the Hebrew chronology, that thereby they might dis- 
parage the claims of Christ as the Messiah.^ 

This Septuagint chronology gives all needed time, 
if even the Hebrew is deemed insufficient. No period 
is reliable as assumed without monumental confirma- 
tion, and the oldest royal names yet found are the 
last of the third and the first two of the fourth dy- 
nasties. On the rocks in the Sinaitic peninsula are 
found the royal ovals of Sephuris, Soris, and Suphis, 
tallying, as above, with Manetho's dynasties. In the 
great pyramid, the oldest human structure in the 
world, a way has been forced through the solid ma- 
sonry, above the ceiling of the kings' chamber, into 
open interstices between the granite blocks that sus- 
tain the superincumbent pressure, and in this hidden 
recess there appear, on the rough faces of the lime- 
stone blocks, the quarry-marks of the workmen hasti- 
ly sketched in red pigment, and among them the name, 

' See Seyffarth's Summary, passim. 



EGYPT AS THE HEBREWS' ABODE. 87 

* in the royal oval, of Soofo, or Suphis ; thus seeming to 
fix the author and period as that of the second king 
of the fourth dynasty, and who must have been the 
same as Cheops, given by Herodotus. Wilkinson 
(Manners and Customs of Ancient Egyptians) puts the 
time of Suphis 2123 B. C. C. Piazzi Smyth (Life and 
Works at Great Pyramid) makes the design in build- 
ing it to have been a fixed standard of weights and 
measures, quite ingeniously if not profoundly; and by an 
astronomical calculation he fixes its date at 2170 B. C. 

No monumental inscriptions yet found date further 
back, and in Hebrew chronology this will give three 
hundred, or in Greek more than one thousand, years 
for Egypt's settlement before building the first pyra- 
mid. The ancestors of its builders participated in 
erecting the famous Tower of Babel, and all the cul- 
tivation of the old world had come across the flood, 
and no attained civilization of that age need ask for 
higher antiquity to have secured its cultivation. 

The hill of lime-rock, on which the pyramids of Mem- 
phis are built, was a place of royal and noble sepul- 
ture for successive generations, and the region is 
filled with tombs, elaborately cut in the solid stone, 
and opening into separate vaults and more spacious 
chambers. Perfectly preserved paintings freshly pre- 
sent these old Egyptians in all the .varied scenes and 
employments of their times ; their dress, manners and 
customs, and national peculiarities. The great man 
of the tomb is represented of large size, his rod of 
power and punishment in hand, his scribe taking an 



88 HUMANITY AWAITING REDEMPTION. 

inventory of his possessions, his flocks and herds 
around him, and his laborers under their task-masters 
at their varied employments. The Egyptian society 
had nothing of free communion and equal fellowship, 
but was everywhere the austere master and servile 
dependants ; and even the family group was the lord- 
ly patriarch and submissively obedient wife and 
children. The tomb of Shaffre, the name so com- 
pounded as to be expressive of the second Suphis, 
or son of Suphis, has recently been disclosed at the 
south-east direction from the second pyramid, of 
which he was the builder, and abundantly testifies 
to the power, population, and wealth to which the 
kingdom had then attained ; and the tombs of other 
great men of the time show that their occupants an- 
nounced themselves as the priests of Suphis, or of 
Shaffre. 

The ancient monuments and the improved engrav- 
ing in granite manifest that population and culture 
spread from Memphis up the river, settling and build- 
ing up the Faioum on the west, and Benihassan on 
the east of the river; and the improvement is per- 
sistently manifest upwards, till it culminates in 
Thebes and Luxor; and then shows its inferiority, 
as beyond the centre of cultivated art, towards Syene 
and the cataracts. All here is less perfect and sooner 
decayed. When Abraham visited Egypt, Suphis and 
Shaffre had already reigned, and builded, and died, 
and the nation in its power and prestige was tend- 
ing upwards towards the Thebaid ; and this had be- 



EGYPT AS THE HEBREWS' ABODE. 89 

come a source of jealousy and dissension, that had 
ripened into revolt and rebellion before the coming 
of Joseph. In the twelfth dynasty, a king, by Mane- 
tho named Sesostris, a Diospolite or Theban ruler, 
had carried his arms around the Mediterranean into 
Europe, and left his emblems inscribed on the rocks 
iu the countries he conquered ; but in the subsequent 
dynasties till the eighteenth, there is continual change 
and consequent confusion, showing that the government 
was divided, and parts of the country had its different 
kings. Some are Diospolite, Xoite, or Zoan kings of 
the Delta ; Shepherd kings ; foreign Phenician kings i 
and Hellenic shepherd kings ; mostly without names 
being given. The monuments give equal evidence 
of commotions and dissensions. Names have been 
violently obliterated, and in some of the tombs the 
paintings have been defaced and desecrated by hostile 
hands. 

The earliest catholic forms of the worship of Osiris 
may well be taken as designed to check this spread- 
ing alienation. It represented the collecting of the 
scattered members and limbs of the god into one 
place, and the union of his votaries in common wor- 
ship at his temple ; as if designed to unite all Egyp- 
tians in fellowship and devotion at the shrine of their 
common patriarch Mizraim. The varied forms of the 
myth of Osiris, as in some way presenting the dying 
and reviving of nature by the falling and overflo\\^ng 
of the Nile, were later inventions. But the well- 
meant efforts at religious reconciliation and national 



90 HUMANITY AWAITING REDEMPTION. 

union found their internal hostilities too strong to be 
so overcome. Different dynasties of kings reigned at 
the same time in different places, and were hostile to 
each other. Lower Egypt was peculiarly adapted to 
the feeding of flocks and herds, and the shepherds of 
Arabia, Canaan, and Phenicia removed, just as Abra- 
ham had done, their large flocks and herds to its rich 
pastures, and returned to their homes greatly en- 
riched and prospered. The employment of the shep- 
herd was then no peaceful Acadian life, but a per- 
petual strife with wild beasts and robbers, as in the 
experience of the young shepherd David. No men 
were so readily transferred to warriors and captains. 
They naturally made common cause with the Egyp- 
tian dissentients of their own region, and powerfully 
assisted them in their conflicts, and afterwards par- 
ticipated in the benefits of their victories. The kings 
of the lower and middle Egypt at first, and for a long 
time, triumphed over the old Diospolitans, and drove 
them into, and at one time, at least, beyond, the The- 
baid, and had authority over all Egypt. But at length 
the patriotism, prowess, and boldness of the old The- 
bans prevailed, and drove the hated shepherd-assisted 
armies back to Memphis, to On, to Xois, and finally 
out of Zoan and Egypt itself, and recovered the en- 
tire kingdom, under the complete sway of the kings 
of the eighteenth dynasty. It is not necessary to 
look abroad for an invading empire strong enough to 
come in and conquer Egypt. All the circumstances 
best comport with the belief, that all the kings of 



91 

Egypt were still native Egyptians, and helped by 
foreign emigrant shepherds and traders, and that the 
causes of dissension and revolt were internal con- 
flicting interests and superstitions, and not national 
foreign invasions. So long possession by a foreign 
nation must have left deeper traces of the exotic lan- 
guage and manners, if any such invasion had been. 

Wilkinson finds the name of Osirtassen I. on the 
broken columns of a temple at Karnak ; on two obe- 
lisks which belonged to Heliopolis below, and the 
Faioum above, Memphis ; and in the rock-chambers at 
Beni-hassen; showing that he had carried his arms 
and made captives among the Asiatic tribes. His 
name .does not appear in any of the dynasties of 
Manetho, and is doubtless one of a dynasty of which 
he gives the aggregate years of the individual reigns, 
but not the kings' names. Wilkinson puts this Osirtas- 
sen at the year 1740 B. C, and deems him contemporary 
with the sale of Joseph to Potiphar, and begins from 
him what he considers authentic place and date in 
history. Because he had carried his arms beyond the 
Red Sea, Wilkinson deems that he could not have 
been in the times of the Shepherd dynasties ; but 
as on the obelisks, and at Karnak, he has the ensign 
of ^' the lord of the upper and lower country," and 
might thus have reigned when the Thebaid kings 
were driven towards Ethiopia, in such case nothing 
would prevent that he should have had collisions 
with Arabians, and even Assyrians. All best agrees 
with the supposition that he was in the zenith of the 



92 HUMANITY AWAITING REDEMPTION. 

sway of the Shepherd dynasties, if he was the king 
contemporary with Joseph. 

2. The Government of Egypt. — Its beginning 
was patriarchal. No descendant wished to dispute 
the authority of Mizraim, who was ruler and priest in 
one. Naturally the civil and sacerdotal authority 
became united in one person, and as long as this first 
patriarch lived, he was a monarch ruling in the place 
and with the sanction of God. Other sub-patriarchs 
stood to their particular tribes in a similar but sub- 
ordinate position ; and when the older patriarch died, 
the advantages of union kept the kindred clans 
voluntarily submissive to some venerable chieftain, 
whose rule was accepted as under the same divine 
sanction. Patriarchal government naturally merged 
in theocratic government. Old polytheistic nations 
were universally not monarchical only, but theocratic ; 
and besides that it came up from the patriarchal state 
in course, it had the great recommendation that it 
promoted royal majesty and popular loyalty. The 
human king had the credit of being the vicegerent 
of the tutelar god while he lived, and if his reign had 
been specially acceptable and venerable, it was easy 
to set him among the gods when he died. 

Where the government blended civil and religious 
authority, the priests were in consequence a power 
in the state, and though not direct participants in the 
sovereignty, as the accredited messengers of the 
gods they were the legitimate advisers of the sever- 



EGYPT AS THE HEBREWS' ABODE. 93 

eign, and must have special distinction and peculiar 
prerogatives. They must have their badges, and 
revenues, and spiritual functions, as a separate class 
in the community. The king communes with the 
gods directly through the priesthood. Herodotus so 
represents the position of the Egyptian priests.^ 
" Those of Heliopolis were the most learned of any 
in all Egypt. The office was confined to men ; and 
while in other nations priests usually wear the hair 
long, in Egypt they cut it short, except on occasion^ 
of great mourning. They observe great cleanliness, 
bathe twice a day, and practise religious ceremonies 
with great exactness. They have one kind of dress 
of linen, and their shoes were of the byblus. They do 
not spend their own incomes, but live of the sacri- 
fices, a portion of which was assigned them ready 
dressed, and wine, but they may not eat of fish. 
Every deity has his priests and a chief priest, and at 
death a son succeeds." 

The royal hieroglyph was the sun, or the hawk 
and globe ; and the name for the sun was Phre, pro- 
nounced Phrah, which is the Hebrew spelling for 
Pharaoh, the common title of Egyptian monarchs. 
So, as sun-devoted, we have Poti-phar, Poti-pherah, 
Ho-phrah, &c., as human alliances with the patron 
deity. 

3. The Religion of Egypt. — Very soon after the 
flood, as already noticed, polytheism became univer- 

' Euterpe, sec. 3, 35-37. 



94 HUMANITY AWAITING REDEMPTION. 

sal. Monotheism, as a faith and worship, lingered in 
few cases, as that of Melchisedek, king of Salem, and 
among the descendants of Shem ; but at the call 
of Abraham idolatrous practices everywhere abound- 
ed. The Egyptian colony was superstitious and 
idolatrous from the first, and very early their peculiar 
religious cultus began its development. It may be 
deemed that the worship of the heavenly bodies, as 
the emblems of the true God, marked the first depart- 
ure from the monotheistic faith in the family of 
Noah, and consequential upon this, polytheism and 
idolatry were sure. Herodotus supposes this to have 
been the first worship, as he deems society to have 
begun in paganism. '^ The original deities men adore 
are the sun, moon, earth, fire, &c." Clio, sec. 131. 
And Diodorus Siculus, lib. 1, says, "The ancients 
looking up to the heavens and universal nature, and 
wondering, received as the first eternal deities the 
sun and the moon." From what has been above 
noticed of the Egyptians, it has been evident that 
the sun was made their supreme deity. Their first 
king, Menes, the patriarch Mizraim, ruled in the 
place of this chief god, and was himself worshipped 
after his death, as Osiris, in the gathering of all relics 
of him that had been scattered, into one place, to 
unite all the people in one common superstition. 
With Osiris was connected the worship of Isis, the 
representative of the moon, as the former had been, 
through the king, the representative of the sun ; and 
here was involved what was peculiar to the Egyptian 



EGYPT AS THE HEBREWS' ABODE. 95 

religion. Some marked characteristic of animal or 
plant rendered the object sacred, proper to be dedi- 
cated to the deity, and induced its mark or name to 
become the standing hieroglyphical sign of the god. 
So the bull, as Apis, representing the fertilizing pow- 
er of solar light and heat, was sacred to Osiris, as the 
heifer was to Isis. The Egyptian hawk, from his 
keen sight, represented the omniscience and wisdom 
of Thoth; the crocodile was terrible and tongueless, 
representing the certain, though silent, retributions 
of the deity; and thus with the goat, cat, ibis, and 
lotus and papyrus plants. The cat, from the pecu- 
liar fire of its eye in the dark, was a proper represen- 
tation of the moon in the sun's absence, and so the 
cat was sacred to Isis. Particular animals of the kind 
were dedicated to the god, and henceforth the priest 
cherished and fed them as sacred. To kill such sa- 
cred animal was a capital offence, with no reprieve ; 
and when they died they were embalmed, and carried 
to their sacred depositories in their assigned cities; 
and myriads of sacred cats, crocodiles, ibises, &c., lie 
embalmed in their assigned cemeteries. 

These sacred animals, as dedicated to the god, were 
not always of the kind which might be sacrificed in 
its city, and as matter of fact, the sacrificial animals 
were of very limited variety. Herodotus^ gives a 
minute account. The swine, though an unclean ani- 
mal to an Egyptian, was yet sacrificed to Isis at the 
time of full moon only. In the Thebaid, goats, but 

* Euterpe, sec. 41 and onward. 



96 HUMANITY AWAITING REDEMPTION. 

not sheep, were sacrificed, except at an annual festival 
they kill a ram and cast its skin over the image of the 
god; but at Mendes they sacrificed sheep and ab- 
stained from goats. Bulls and young male calves 
were sacrificed to Isis j but cows and young heifers 
were not reciprocated in sacrifice to Osiris. So scru- 
pulous were the Egyptians about the blood of the 
sacred heifer, that they never used a knife or cooking 
utensil of another people, lest these should have 
touched the blood or flesh of the sacred animal. No 
other fowl but geese were offered in sacrifice. He- 
rodotus 1 says expressly that swine, bulls, and male 
calves, and geese were all that were sacrificed, though 
from former statement he should have added goats at 
Thebes, and sheep at Mendes. 

The great sacrifice was that of the sacred bull to 
Isis. Isis was represented as a woman, with the 
horns of the new moon upon her head. The prepara- 
tion for the sacrifice was a careful examination of the 
animal by the designated priest. He must be wholly 
white, and a single black hair would tarnish his pu- 
rity. When found unblemished, the priest affixes the 
sacred signet to his horns, and he is led with great 
solemnity to the altar. A fire is kindled, libations of 
wine poured out, the goddess is invoked, and the vic- 
tim slain. The skin is then flayed, the head separated 
from the body, and imprecations heaped upon it to 
avert all divine anger from the worshippers, and then 
sold to a stranger or cast in the river. No Egyptian 

» Sec. 46. 



EGYPT AS THE HEBREWS' ABODE. 97 

will feed from the head of any sacrificed bullock. The 
body is afterwards dismembered, carefully examined, 
and then burned with various ceremonies. Other sac- 
rifices had their own peculiarities. There were also 
prescribed forms of divination in the consulting of 
the sacred oracles ; and that of the great deity at 
Thebes was the parent of all subsequent Grecian and 
Eoman oracles. 

Some peculiar doctrines were much more elaborat- 
ed in their teaching, and inculcated by national prac- 
tices and customs. Such were especially the immor- 
tality of the soul, and rewards and punishments after 
death. The doctrine of metempsychosis, or varied 
transmigrations of the soul, was one form of Egyptian 
belief; and out of it grew the practice of embalming 
and careful preservation of the body in its mummy- 
state, that at the long period of the soul's return it 
might find and again inhabit its old tenement. 

And so the representations in their tombs of the 
funeral procession over the river, the arraignment of 
the dead before Osiris, and his approving or disap- 
proving sentence on the former life, and the disposal 
of the body under the sanction of the divine appro- 
bation, gave rise to similar mystic forms in their secret 
orgies, and which were the source of the famed mys- 
teries in imitation at Eleusina, and Thrace, and other 
Grecian cities, and which mystic rites were continued 
from Greece to the Romans. The practice of em- 
balming was a religious rite, and more perfect in later 
than in earher times, when they had found and applied 
7 . 



98 HUMANITY AWAITING REDEMPTION. 

the most effectual bitumen to secure the most com- 
plete preservation of the mummy. The method need 
not be specified, as the mummy-pits are so abundantly 
open to modern inspection. The civil authority had 
its hand on all these religions rites, inasmuch as it 
used religious fears and hopes where it could not 
apply civil pains and penalties. 

These may not have had their full development, as 
given by the Greek historians, in the time of Joseph ; 
yet the principle and form of the Egyptian state reg- 
ulations were early established, and the Hebrew peo- 
ple were now to be introduced into, and become famil- 
iar with, these Egyptian peculiarities. 

4. The Going down of the Israelites into Egypt. 
— From the call of Abraham to the going into Egypt 
had been two hundred and fifteen years, during which 
period the progress of the chosen people towards a 
national existence had been most remarkably slow, 
having increased in all to only seventy individuals. 
Their continuance in Egypt was precisely for the 
same period of two hundred and fifteen years, but in 
this latter period the accumulation of Abraham's pos- 
terity had been as remarkably rapid, numbering one 
year after their exodus six hundred and three thou- 
sand five hundred and fifty men above twenty years 
of age able to bear arms.^ The tribe of Levi was ex- 
cepted in this enumeration, as pertaining to the sacer- 
dotal ofiSce, and not subject to military service. The 

» Num. i. 45, 46. 



EGYPT AS THE HEBREWS' ABODE. 99 

addition of those, together with the aged, the children, 
and the women, could have made the entire popula- 
tion scarcely less than two million souls. So effective 
had been the divine arrangement for their safety and 
prosperity during their national minority. 

Joseph, the oldest son of Rachel, and the favorite 
of Jacob, was already in Egypt, having, through the 
jealousy and hatred of his brethren, been sold by 
them to Midianitish merchants, who had again sold 
him to Potiphar, captain of Pharaoh's guard. Soon 
after, from the false charge of his licentious mistress, 
Joseph was imprisoned in Egypt ; but both under Poti- 
phar and in prison, the favor of G.od was with him, 
and all he did prospered. The spirit of prophecy 
imparted to him enabled him to interpret the dreams 
of two state prisoners with him according to subse- 
quent fact, and this opened the way for his introduc- 
tion to Pharaoh, and interpretation of two remarkable 
successive dreams, indicating seven years of great 
plenty in the land, to be followed by seven years of 
famine. He was in consequence at once set at the 
head of the national administration, allied in marriage 
to the priesthood, which was the highest order in the 
state, and managed all things during the j^ears of 
plenty in provision for the succeeding years of famine. 
This famine reached the land of Canaan, and the fam- 
ily of Jacob became dependent upon the granaries of 
Egypt ; and after the affecting trial of his brethren 
for Benjamin's sake, Joseph made himself known to 
them, and by Pharaoh's invitation, the whole patriar- 



100 HUMANITY AWAITING EEDEMPTION. 

chal family went to Egypt, and were settled, by order 
of the king, in Goshen, the most fertile province of 
the realm. 

Their early abode in Egypt was, on Joseph's ac- 
count, under great royal favor. If, as we have before 
noticed, this Pharaoh was the Osirtassen I. found on 
the earliest monuments, and also one of Manetho's 
Sixteenth Dynasty of Shepherd Kings, who now 
reigned over all Egypt, the circumstances connected 
with the chosen race in Egypt find a natural and 
ready explanation. When Jacob and the family first 
came to Egypt, Joseph certainly designed to ingra- 
tiate the king towards them, and he tells Pharaoh that 
they were shepherds, and yet it was then true that 
" every shepherd was an abomination to the Egyp- 
tians." If the king was one of the old Theban mon- 
archs, or of any regular Egyptian dynasty, such a 
course would seem inexplicable, and directly calcu- 
lated to subvert Joseph's intention. But if he was 
of the Shepherd dynasty, as helped in power by for- 
eign immigrants, whose retainers were as many each, 
and as warlike, as the trained servants of Abraham, 
nothing could have been more in accordance with the 
promptness and tact of Joseph. The king puts the 
Hebrew strangers at once in the midst of Egypt's 
choicest pastures, and directs that the most skilful of 
them be set over the royal flocks and herds. During 
this dynasty, Israel would be fostered and prospered. 
Joseph might have been, probably, thirty years of age 
at this time, and he lived to one hundred and ten 



EGYPT AS THE HEBREWS' ABODE. 101 

years; and at least so long the favor and fostering 
care of Pharaoh would be sure to his brethren and 
their posterity. 

In the mean time, Jacob had given the patriarchal 
and prophetic blessing to his children, died, been em- 
balmed, and carried to his own burying-place in Ca- 
naan ; Joseph had quieted all fears of retaliation, and 
pledged his brethren that he would nourish and pro- 
tect their children after Jacob's death ; his own family 
had largely increased, and the third generation of his 
children had grown up about him ; and then on for a 
season after Joseph's death and all his brethren, the 
Hebrews remained still prosperous, so that emphati- 
cally it is said of them, " they were fruitful and in- 
creased abundantly, and multiplied and waxed exceed- 
ing mighty, and the land was filled with them." 

But such constant and long-continued favor had its 
dangers. It tended to luxurious effeminacy and de- 
generacy; to forget their covenant, and undervalue 
its promises ; to be satisfied with their state, and both 
unable and unwilling to meet the necessary hardships 
which must be passed through in taking possession 
of their promised inheritance. After this prosperity 
had lasted more than a century, God, in his provi- 
dence, greatly changed their condition. The old 
Theban princes and captains renewed their courage 
and conflict, and recovered their government of the 
nation. Their insurgent enemies were gradually ex- 
pelled, and the Hebrews, so much in favor with them, 
were sure to feel the jealousy and distrust of the 



102 HUMANITY AWAITING REDEMPTION. 

embittered conquerors. As they forced the kings of 
the shepherd dynasties from Thebes, and then from 
Memphis, and down into the Delta, and took the rule 
of upper and 'middle Egypt, and pressed upon their 
retreating and enfeebled enemies utterly to subdue 
them, we have the coming in of the eighteenth dynas- 
ty, and the " new king arose who knew not Joseph." ^ 
These old insurgents might again make fight, and 
such a multitude of foreign people were dangerous.^ 
" So they set over them task-masters, and made their 
lives bitter with hard bondage in mortar, and in brick, 
and in all manner of service in the field ; " and when, 
notwithstanding this vigorous oppression, '^ the more 
they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and 
grew," this new king commanded the midwives to 
save alive only the female births and make way with 
all the male children. While this edict was in force, 
Moses was born ; hid three months by his parents, and 
then exposed in a cradle of rushes on the brink of the 
river. The child was here found by the king's daugh- 
ter, adopted by her as her own, and brought up in the 
palace, and became ^' learned in all the wisdom of the 
Egyptians." This prepared him so far for the post of 
captain and lawgiver to the chosen nation. The time 
had come, and God had made his oppressed people 
ready and willing to assume their independence, and 
go out to the conquest of their inheritance. 

' Ex. i. 8. 2 ij^x. i. 10. 



EXODUS AND THE THEOCEACT. 103 



SECTION IV. 

THE EXODUS OF ISRAEL, AND ESTABLISHMENT OF A 
GOVERNMENT. 

Moses was forty years at the Court of Egypt. He 
still maintained his loyalty to his national Covenant 
with Jehovah, and his patriotic attachment to his 
people. By taking part with his brethren, and hasti- 
ly slaying an Egyptian, an oppressor, he was forced 
to flee to Arabia, and became a shepherd in the land 
of Midiau, married a daughter of Jethro, and kept his 
flocks in the valleys of the mountainous region about 
Sinai, and has here the very difierent discipline for 
his future work through the next forty years, and 
which future work was to occupy the last forty years 
of Moses' life in its execution. In this wild region 
about Sinai, he sees a bush in a flame while the bush 
itself is not burned, and a voice from it proclaimed 
the presence of the God of his fathers, and gave to 
him a commission to lead his people from bondage 
to their free inheritance in Canaan. After a series 
of most desolating judgments upon Egypt, which 
evinced the power of Israel's God above all the gods 
of Egypt, the stubborn opposition of Pharaoh was 
subdued, and he assented to Israel's departure. All 



104 HUMAXITT AVTAITIXG EEDEilPTTOX. 

being ready, the whole nation, old and young, left 
Egypt, and journeyed eastward to the western gulf 
at the northern extremity of the Eed Sea. Here 
was the miracle of the divided waters for Israel's 
passage, and their returning flood for the destruction 
of the pursuing Egyptians, thus spreading wide 
among the nations of the earth the knowledge of the 
true God, whose power and authority above all gods 
it was the special mission of the seed of Abraham to 
publish and estabhsh. Moses led the people on into 
the opening wilderness ; God made the manna to fall 
about their encampments, and the stream to flow from 
the rock smitten by Moses' rod; and the attacking 
Midianites were overthrown, as the supported hands 
of Moses lift the rod all day towards heaven ; and at 
length, in a three months' march from their leaving 
Egypt, they came to the place where God, from the 
burning bush, had ordered Moses to put the shoes 
from his feet because the place where he stood was 
holy ground ; and here they pitched their tents, and 
prepared for a long encampment, at the foot of Mount 
Sinai. AU disturbing enemies were overthrown, and 
all necessary sustenance was provided, and here the 
essential and difficult work of organizing the fugitive 
people, and establishing a stable constitution, and open- 
ing the administration of a national form of govern- 
ment, was to be accomplished. 

1. Theib Character and Texdencies from their 
Education ix Egypt. — Their fathers had died in 



EXODUS AND THE THEOCRACY. 105 

Egypt, and they had all been born and nurtured 
there, and there will all their recollections and early 
associations turn the current of their thoughts and 
sympathies ; and thus the influence of their abode in 
Egypt must be expected to characterize the temper 
and habit of the Israelites for the present, and mani- 
fest its tendencies for many ages. They had hence 
derived all their notions of social life, municipal and 
civil regulations, rights of property, and modes of 
agriculture, architecture, manufacture, and military 
training, and had been constantly under the influence 
of Egyptian religious doctrines and practices. They 
had preserved their Hebrew peculiarities, and by liv- 
ing mainly together had retained the habits induced 
by their education from the patriarchs, and especially 
their distinction from all other peoples in their Cove- 
nant and promise from God to their fathers ; and many 
of them, under the discipline of their hard bondage, 
had doubtless imbibed the true spirit of their fathers' 
faith, and scrupulously conformed to their fathers' 
worship and piety ; yet in many ways, it is manifest 
that the mass of the Hebrews had largely conformed 
in feeling and practice to Egyptian habits. 

Their heavy burdens had not weaned their attach- 
ments from their old homes, nor kept them from fall- 
ing in with the superstitions and idolatries of their 
oppressors. They desired more a relief from bond- 
age in Egypt than a final departure from Egypt. 
Moses had early thought it easy to arouse them to 



106 HUMANITY AWAITING REDEMPTION. 

their deliverance/ but a wider acquaintance with 
the spirit of his people had apparently made him 
hopeless of their ever waking up to independence 
and freedom, and he long resisted the taking upon 
himself God's commission to emancipate them.^ At 
every rising difficulty and hardship, or special danger, 
in their way up from Egypt to Canaan, they murmur, 
are discouraged, and fill their minds with remem- 
brances of the good things left behind them, and 
long to return to their enjoyment.^ Even here be- 
fore Sinai, while God is giving them their law, and 
Moses is withdrawn a few days from them in com- 
munion with the Divine Lawgiver, witli the glory 
of Jehovah's presence bright before them, they make 
their golden calf, after the worship of the Egyptian 
sacred Bull, and cry, '^ These be thy gods, Israel."' 
And onward into their future history, Egyptian su- 
perstitions and idolatrious observances easily and re- 
peatedly lead the people off from their Covenant ; so 
deeply had they become Egyptianized in their early 
experience. 

With the inward tendencies of fallen humanity to 
idolatry, and the universal influence from the practice 
of all surrounding nations, in connection with this 
early imbuing of the Hebrew mind with the idola- 
trous system matured and all-controlling in the val- 
ley of the Nile, it is very manifest that the strongest 

* Ex. ii. 11-14:. Confer Acts vii. 25. 
2 Ex. iii. 11, iv. 1, v. 20-23, vi. 12. 
^ Ex. xvi. 3, xvii. 3 ; Num. xi. 4-6, xiv. 3, 4. 



EXODUS AND THE THEOCEACY. 107 

guards and the most controlling and stringent regula- 
tions must be applied to Israel, or the very design of 
Abraham's Call, and the end of ^God's promise to bis 
seed, must be lost in their apostasy and general 
impiety. To this end must we look for the peculiari- 
ties of God's dealings with the chosen people ; and 
especially now, in their formal organization as an 
independent government and free state, should we 
anticipate the most comprehensive and profoundly 
wise adaptations and institutions inspired by Jeho- 
vah, and embodied in the constitution and code of 
laws which, under the divine direction and througl; 
the medium of Moses, are here to be proposed to the 
nation, and adopted by them. The Israelites staid 
in this safe and convenient encampment nearly a 
year; and in many respects, both to Israel and the 
human race, it is among the most important of any 
year of the world's history. More is done here to 
settle in human recognition the principles of God's 
gracious purposes of redemption, than in any other 
year will occur till the coming of the Messiah. 

2. To THIS Condition a Theocracy was eminently 

ADAPTED AND ADOPTED BOTH BY GOD AND THE PeOPLE. 

— The Egyptian government was a Theocracy, hav- 
ing the sun as the chief Deity, and worshipped as 
Ammun, Noph, Ra, Phrah, Osiris, &c., and from whom 
was assumed to come all civil and religious authority. 
He made the laws, and inspired the king and priest- 
hood to apprehend, interpret, and apply his will, in all 



108 HUMANITY AWAITING REDEMPTION. 

legislation and administration of government. The 
civil power, on this principle, had the right to bind 
conscience and legislate on religion, for the king was 
the vicegerent of God, and ruled only under his di- 
rection and approbation. And not only in Egypt ; 
the governments of all the early great nations of the 
earth were theocratic from principle and policy. The 
Patriarch of the family was the Euler and Priest of 
the family and tribe, from the very constitution of the 
family by God. The descendants felt constrained to 
submit to the authority of the Patriarch as the ordi- 
nance of God, and to look to him as the constituted 
medium of addressing God in prayer and sacrifice ; 
and as the family enlarged to a tribe, and a nation of 
tribes, so the king of the nation stood as the Patri- 
archal Ruler and religious functionary for ail the peo- 
ple of the realm. And the policy perpetuated the 
application of the principle. For no matter how wise 
and powerful the monarch, nor how large and vigilant 
his official police, there must still be many crimes he 
could not detect, and some wrong-doers so strong that 
he could not punish ; but nothing could be hidden from 
the gods, and none so powerful as to escape divine 
justice. The civil power in this way had at its 
use all the rewards and punishments of the future 
world. 

Such form of government was highly expedient for 
the chosen people in all respects. They had become 
accustomed to government in that light ; Moses had 
been instructed in all its principles and their Egyptian 



EXODUS AND THE THEOCRACY. 109 

application ; it was the common and almost necessary 
expedient for all idolatrous nations to call in to their 
help the presence of -some god as their patron-deity, 
both as against vicious subjects and hostile enemies, 
and thus example favored such government for Israel ; 
but still more appropriate was it for them, in the end 
of God's design, to bring them off from all idolatrous 
tendencies, and confirm their perpetual attachment 
to the one true Jehovah. By taking Jehovah as 
the national king and patron God, and thus establish- 
ing a true Theocracy, the whole government stood on 
right and solid principle, and secured the highest 
veneration and respect for the official authority, and 
the fullest protection and freedom for the subject. 
A Theocracy with a pagan god must be superstitious 
and delusive, and will surely become tyrannical and 
oppressive. The monarch and the priest will use the 
presence and the power of the false god for their own 
ambitious and selfish ends, but the presence and 
power of the true God will control alike prince and 
people, priest and worshipper. In such a true apphca- 
tion of a theocracy, church and state rightly go 
together, and the source for civil pains and penal- 
ties is also the source for righteous control over con- 
science, and the application of spiritual blessings and 
divine judgments. Besides this, the true Jehovah 
had called Abraham, and chosen his seed to be a 
people through whom all nations of the earth should 
be blessed. The very end of their existence as 
an independent people was their salutary influence 



110 HUMANITY AWAITING REDEMPTION. 

upon humanity, and that through them truth and 
righteousness should be spread over all people. 
Who shall prepare them for their mission, and gov- 
ern and guide them in all their way, so legitimately 
and successfully as Jehovah himself, who has so 
benevolently raised them up and brought them to 
their present position ? Neither they nor the world 
can be served so well as by God's direct govern- 
ment and legislation for them. 

3. God's Institution and Establishment of a 
True Theocracy. — The general principles of early 
governments were theocratic ; but inasmuch as the god 
was false, tiie government was unrighteous and always 
oppressive. Only one nation was ever in position for 
the righteous application of the theocratic principle, 
aod only the government of the Hebrew Common- 
wealth was a righteous, legitimate theocracy. It is 
richer in instruction in all the principles of free, and 
firm, and salutary civil jurisprudence, and more worthy 
of deep study, than any other national government, 
ancient or modern. Besides its direct bearing on the 
preparation of humanity for the application of the 
promised redemption, even for purposes of civil 
sovereignty only, we can better dispense with all 
other lessons of history and philosophical treatises 
of law and polity, than to disregard or mistake the 
divine teaching in God's own government over this 
one prominent nation of antiquity, whose theocratic 
rule had its practical manifestation in the world for 



EXODUS AND THE THEOCRACY. Ill 

fifteen hundred years ; and the scattered people, still 
acknowledging its authority, live on under the chan- 
ging forms of other governments, amid the rise and fall 
of nations, even to the present age. 

A mere outline of the method of the divine institu- 
tion of the Hebrew Theocracy is here given. 

The Israelites were encamped upon the plain at the 
base of Sinai, and the manifestation of God's presence 
was in clouds and smoke on the mount, and God 
called Moses upward thither, and in communion with 
him he gives the preliminary conditions of all further 
proceeding, and requires him to go down to the peoplQ 
and make the divine proposition fairly understood, and 
get their free assent. "Ye have seen what I did 
unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' 
wings, and brought you unto myself Now therefore, 
if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my 
covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto 
me above all people, for all the earth is mine ; and ye 
shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy 
nation." 1 Moses obeyed, went down to the plain, 
made known to the people the distinct proposition 
through the elders ; and then all the people intelli- 
gently and freely respond, " All that the Lord hath 
spoken we will do." ^ Moses then returned to Jeho- 
vah in the mount.with their unanimous assent, and God 
accepted the full surrender, and bade Moses so to in- 
form the people, and prepare themselves, by special 
sanctification and cleansing, to receive the formal 

^ Ex. xix. 4-6. 2 Ex. xix. 8. 



112 HUMANITY AWAITING EEDEMPTTON. 

ratification on the third day from that time ; " and it 
came to pass, on the third day in the morning, that 
there were thunders, and lightnings, and a thick cloud 
upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet ex- 
ceediog loud, so that all the people that was in the 
camp trembled." " Moses speaks and God answers 
him by a voice." Thus in the audience of all the 
people God announces' the ten commandments. In 
their terror, the people cried to Moses, " Speak thou 
with us, and we will hear ; but let not God speak with 
us, lest we die." 

God then gave to Moses in the mount the general 
regulations contained in chapters 21, 22, and 23 ; and 
he returned and rehearsed them to the people, and 
they again responded, " All the words which the Lord 
hath said will we do." After this verbal assent, Moses 
built an altar and made sacrifice, and formally wrote 
out the words of this general constitution now agreed 
upon, and read them again in full assembly ; and this 
third time the people unanimously assent : " All that 
the Lord hath spoken will we do, and be obedient." 
Then Moses took the blood of the sacrifice and 
sprinkled with it the Book and all the people," 
saying, '^ Behold the blood of the covenant which 
the Lord hath made with you concerning all these 
words." The ten commandments • were afterwards 
written upon two stone tablets, as fundamental and** 
immutable moral obligations ; and these, with the Book 
of the Constitution now ratified, and the whole code 
of legislation afterwards divinely announced in ac- 



EXODUS AND THE THEOCRACY. 113 

cordance with the constitution, were at length' put 
for permanent preservation in the Ark of the Cove- 
nant/ and these were every seven years, at the year 
of release, to be read to the great convocation ; and 
the last act of Moses' public official work was the 
calling attention anew, and assent of the nation, to 
these words of life and death for them.^ 

So God himself has respect to the right of a peo- 
ple to choose their king and adopt their form of 
government, and by such consent he becomes their 
civil Ruler as well as Patron Deity. It would have 
been another sin to have refused the divine proposal ; 
but having accepted and ratified the covenant, hence- 
forth all idolatry and participation in pagan supersti- 
tions became rebellion, and all open resistance to 
God's legislation was treason. Provision was at 
once made for the local abode and visible presence 
of their divine king within the nation. The Taber- 
nacle, in the wilderness and for the first years of their 
possession in Canaan, was God's national dwelling- 
place ; afterwards the costly temple by Solomon was 
substituted ; and here the Shechina, or cloud of the 
Lord's presence, perpetually abode. Here the peo- 
ple came for counsel, brought their offerings, and 
through the High Priest received the sovereign re- 
sponses. Here was his perpetual Table with the 
Shew-bread, the golden candlestick, and the con- 
stant smoke of incense ; and the entire tribe of Levi 

^ Ex. XXV. 16. ' Deut. xxxi. 15-20. 

8 



114 HUMANITY AWAITING REDEMPTION. 

was assigned to be religious ministers and civil ser- 
vants of his household ; and a perpetual revenue was 
required in the tithes and offerings of first fruits and 
portions of the sacrifices. 

Among the most remarkable manifestations of his 
presence and authority was the stated application 
of special providences in rewards and punishments. 
It was openly assumed and declared, that God would 
so deal with them as with no other people, and direct- 
ly suit his providences to their conduct. No enemy 
should molest them in their faithful keeping of Sab- 
bath days and the sabbatical year ; the land was 
every seventh year neither to be sowed nor eared, 
and at the Jubilee, two years together was the land 
to be left fallow, and yet it was spontaneously to pro- 
duce all that should be needed ; and all needed good 
is theirs provided they maintain their loyalty and de- 
votion. But all evil is threatened if rebellious. So 
their law speaks ; so their prophets preach ; so their 
sacred Psalms teach them ; and even in some marked 
cases the retribution for parental disloyalty went 
down to the third and fourth generation. This lia- 
bility to retributions in the posterity of the sinner 
was a prerogative of God as their king, but with- 
holdeu expressly from the human magistrates.^ A 
true Theocracy may so establish civil sanctions in 
this life, leaving each soul to bear his own iniquity 
for the future state,^ for the true God can exactly 
discriminate and infallibly execute ; but no false god 

* Deut. xxiv. 16 ; 2 Chron. xxv. 3, 4. ^ Ezek. xviii. 



EXODUS AND THE THEOCRACY. 115 

can sustain such assumption, nor could Moses have 
afforded this legislation but as he was the Lawgiver 
in a true Theocracy. 

While Jehovah was thus their chosen king, and the 
legitimate civil sovereignty was vested in him, and 
all captains, judges, and kings, that afterwards ad- 
ministered the government of Israel, were vicege- 
rents of him, yet in the great transactions and 
changes of the administration, the people had an 
acknowledged and legitimate voice, and were rec- 
ognized as the source of supreme power in the state 
which they had now voluntarily committed to a theo- 
cratic administration.^ So far as left to human ad- 
ministration, the Hebrew Commonwealth was a Ke- 
public. In many respects the different Tribes were 
independent, and sovereign in their own jurisdiction, 
and yet all the tribes for national purposes were one 
sovereignty, and no one tribe could be permitted to 
withdraw from the rest in separate nationality but as 
revolutionary and rebellious. While Egypt and all 
surrounding nations were Absolute Despotisms, as- 
suming divine right to rule, and maintaining their 
oppression by mythological delusions, the Hebrew 
theocracy kept prominent the liberty of the people, 
and recognized the rights of the citizen. They as- 
sent to the true God to be their king, and the true 
God can never administer an oppressive rule. " He 
is the freeman whom the truth makes free, and all are 

1 See Josh. ix. 18-21 ; 1 Sara. x. 24, xi. 14, 15. 



116 HUMANITY AWAITING REDEMPTION. 

slaves beside." ^' If the truth make you free, you 
shall be free indeed." 

God took a name distinguishing him from all other 
godsj in which name he was publicly to be known as 
their patron-deity ; and in this was another method 
of establishing a true theocracy. When God gave 
Moses his commission at the burning bush, he first 
announced himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and 
Jacob, and in this as peculiarly the covenant God of 
the Israelites. Moses was despondent that the peo- 
ple could be roused by references to the patriarchal 
faith, and felt from his past experience that they had 
succumbed to Egyptian influences too far to be read- 
ily restored to Hebrew loyalty, unless through some 
further sign and pledge of God's distinctive appro- 
bation and protection. " Moses said unto God, Be- 
hold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and 
shall say unto them. The God of your fathers hath 
sent me unto you, and they shall say unto me, What 
is his name ? what shall I say unto them ? " The 
Egyptian patron-god is known by name as peculiarly 
Egypt's protector and ruler ; Israel will need a dis- 
tinct deity, and an appropriated appellation attaching 
the nation to him as distinguishingly theirs. God 
assented to the reasonableness of Moses' proposal, 
and took the occasion to give himself a new name 
as the special protector of the chosen people. " And 
God said unto Moses, I am that I am " — '' say unto 
the children of Israel, I am hath, sent me unto you." ^ 

^ Ex. iii. 13, U. 



EXODUS AND THE THEOCRACY. 117 

This name imports independent being, self-existence, 
and is expressed in the Hebrew language by Jeho- 
vah, as the God who only has underived being, 
and from whom all existence comes ; and this is now 
first appropriated in connection with Israel's national 
deliverance. " And God spake unto Moses, and said 
unto him, I am Jehovah ; and I appeared unto Abra- 
ham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God 
Almighty, but by my name Jehovah was I not known 
unto them." ^ Of all the many names before applied 
to God, here comes first the appellation of the living 
God, distinguishing him especially from all national v 
false gods, in whom is no life ; and thus as holding 
all being in himself. Jehovah is Israel's full and 
exhaustless source of all good. This name was to a 
Hebrew the most sacred possible, and by superstitious 
veneration became the ineffable name, which was not 
to be uttered by human lips. 

Now, all the responsibilities as well as immunities 
and privileges derived from a theocratic form of gov- 
ernment, and immediate national alliance with the 
deity, were fully known to Israel, and a common ac- 
knowledgment of the people of all neighboring king- 
doms. The people must obey, and worship, and 
everywhere acknowledge allegiance to their own 
patron-deity. Thus, as in Deuteronomy ,2 so in many 
other places, it is assumed that the nations Israel had 
conquered will each have their patron-god, and that 
Israel will be in danger of going after them as the 

■ ^ Ex. vi. 3. 2 De^t^ ^11 29-32. 



118 HUMANITY AWAITING REDEMPTION. 

gods locally, as well as nationally, of the countries 
conquered ; and they are admonished not to have 
any regard to these old gods of the place, for 
Jehovah their God is Universal Lord, and all na- 
tions, all lands, all worlds are his. So the Amo- 
rites claimed the land Israel had taken from them, 
but Jephtha at once appealed to the common national 
right of appropriating the power of their own pa- 
tron-deity. " The Lord God of Israel hath dispos- 
sessed the Amorites from before his people Israel, 
and shouldest thou possess it? Wilt thou not pos- 
sess that which Chemosh thy god giveth thee to 
possess? So, whomsoever the Lord our God shall 
drive out from before us, them will we possess." ^ 

4. Special Ordinances separating Israel from 
Gentile Idolaters. — The tendency to idolatry was 
so strong, and the influence of pagan example so 
universal and constant to turn the chosen people 
from their true God, that at the expense of all the 
benefits of national sympathy and communion be- 
tween different kingdoms, it was necessary to keep 
Israel separate, and institute ordinances and cere- 
monial practices which should prove a separating 
wall between Jew and Gentile. Incidental evils 
might occur, and national pride and presumption 
be fostered, in Israel by perverting these remedial 
measures against Gentile superstitions ; but the dan- 

* Judges xi. 23, 24. See also 1 Sam. xxvi. 19, 1 Kings xx. 23, 
and 2 Kings xvii. 24-33. 



EXODUS AND THE THEOCRACY. 119 

ger from public example was so imminent, that, for 
the time, seclusion and non-intercourse were the only 
safe expedients. When Israel shall have been weaned 
from idolatry, and the world made ready, in the 
Mediator's coming, for universal brotherhood, then 
must such a separating- wall between distinctive peo- 
ples be broken down. 

Among such Ordinances was that relative to cere- 
monial undeanness from the dead. The touching of 
a dead body, a bone, or any human relic, defiled the 
person, and excluded him from communion with the 
congregation for seven days.^ The Egyptian doc- 
trine of the metempsychosis with its resulting prac- 
tice of embalming and preserving the dead was 
sacred, and thus in Egypt dead bodies and perpet- 
ual contact with them abounded ; and with such an 
ordinance among the Hebrews, nothing could more 
eflPectually separate the two communities. What was 
sacred to one was abominable profaneness to another. 
And then, the method of an Israelite's cleansing from 
undeanness by touching the dead still very much 
more strengthened the partition-wall between the 
nations. The heifer was sacred to Isis, and to an 
Egyptian one who had shed the blood or eaten the 
flesh of a red heifer was an abomination. They 
would not use a knife or any cooking utensil of a 
foreigner, nor by any means eat with strangers, lest 
they should come in contact with that which had be- 
come desecrated by violating the sanctity of Isis. 

^ See Lev. xxi. 2 and 11; Num. ix. 6-14, xix. 11-16. 



120 HUMANITY AWAITING REDEMPTION. 

But God instituted the very blood of the Egyptians' 
sacred red heifer to cleanse an Israelite from his 
defilement by the dead. A red heifer must be slain, 
the carcass burned, the ashes collected and mingled 
with water ; and this was preserved in readiness, and 
called " the water of separation," by which the un- 
clean was to be sprinkled, and if he came abroad 
without such ceremonial cleansing, he was to be 
cut off from the congregation.^ A pious Hebrew and 
an idolatrous Egyptian must hold each other in abom- 
ination, and such could not dwell together but by 
their conversion to a common faith and practice. 

So, also, the ordinance of dean and unclean meats. 
Nothing is unclean of itself, but for purposes of dis- 
cipline, God made to an Israelite certain animals 
ceremonially unclean ; and the law of unclean meats 
had manifestly one design of separating Israel from 
idolaters. With an Egyptian, swine, dogs, cats, mice, 
lizards and serpents, the crocodile, and among fowls, 
the hawk, owl, and bat were sacred ; dedicated to 
their gods, and eaten for food. The Hebrew Law 
for clean and unclean animals ^ would necessarily 
separate them from the Egyptians, and in a similar 
way from the idolatrous nations of Canaan, when they 
should enter their inheritance.^ 

Still further with the ordinance of marriage. An 
Israelite was forbidden from all intermarriage with 
the heathen nations ; * and the reason given is, " lest 

^ Num. xix. ^ Lev. xi. ; Deut. xiv. 

^ Lev. XX. 24-26. * Deut. vii. 3, 4 ; Josh, xxiii. 12, 13. 



EXODUS AND THE THEOCRACY. 121 

they draw you away after their gods." The violation 
of this law always evinced the expediency of its en- 
' actment by the deleterious consequences of its re- 
jection.^ The Captivity in Babylon, and the strict 
and severe execution of this law of intermarriage by 
Ezra on their return, finally eradicated the Israelitish 
tendency to idols.^ 

Then there was the distinct prohibition of several 
leading idolatrous superstitions. Spencer ^ says it 
was a custom with idolatrous nations of antiquity to 
stand over the sepulchres or bodies of the dead, and 
pluck out or shave off the hair of the head or the 
beard, letting it fall upon the corpse or into the tomb, 
as a devoted peace-ofPering to the departed spirit, or 
to evil demons. So the prohibition to Israel of ^' cut- 
ting the hair, marring the corners of the beard, and 
cutting and scarring the flesh for the dead," * had a 
direct intent to exclude heathenish superstition. So, 
again, Spencer,-^ referring to the Mosaic prohibitions 
of sowing a vineyard with different seeds, ploughing 
with an ox and an ass together, wearing garments of 
mingled linen and woollen, and inducing different 
species of cattle to engender together,^ says " idolaters 
designed to signify by these mixtures and conjunc- 
tures, that husbandmen and shepherds were under 
obligation to the favoring influences of the planets, 
because they thought that the plenty of wool on the 

^ Num. XXV. 1-9; 1 Kiugs xi. 4. ^ Ezra ix. and x. 

^ Leg. Heb. B. II. chap. xii. " Lev. xix. 27, 28. 

^ Leg. Heb. B. II. chap. xxi. ^ Lev. xix. 19 ; Deut. xxii. 9-11. 



122 HUMANITY AWAITING REDEMPTION. 

animal, and of linen in the fields, were from the favor 
of the stars." And quoting from another author in 
the same place, '^ All these mixtures are prohibited 
in detestation of idolatry, because the Egyptians, in 
veneration of the stars, made divers commixtures of 
seeds, and animals, and in their garments, thus rep- 
resenting different conjunctions of the planets." And 
to the same purport is the prohibition to seethe a 
kid ia its mother's milk.^ Bishop Patrick, com. in loco, 
says, " Rabbi Abarbinel affirms, the ancient idolaters 
were accustomed, when they gathered the fruits of 
the earth, to seethe a kid ia his mother's milk, that 
the gods might be propititious to them." And Cud- 
worth, on the Lord's Supper,^ quotes a Karaite Jew 
as saying, " It was a custom of the ancient heathen, 
when they had gathered in all their fruits, to take a 
kid and boil it in the dam's milk, and then, in a magi- 
cal way, to go about and besprinkle with it all their 
trees, fields, gardens, and orchards, thinking by this 
means they should make them fructify more abun- 
dantly the following year." Thus what might seem 
trifling, and even supersitious, legislation, is seen to 
have a serious and direct bearing against all super- 
stition, as then insnaringly abounding. 

To all the above may be finally added the solemn 
prohibition to " pass through the fire to Moloch^ ^ 
Rabbi Maimonides, Mor. Nev. Part III. c. 37 : '' This 
was one great artifice of idolatrous priests to work 

^ Ex. xxiii. 19, xxxiv. 26; Deut. xiv. 21. ^ Chap. ii. 

^ Lev. xviii. 21, xx. 1-5; Deut. xviii. 10. 



TEACHING UNDER A DOUBLE-SENSE. 123 

Upon the superstitious temper of weak men. They 
knew that they feared nothing more than the loss 
of their children, and thus the worshippers of fire 
taught, that if they did not make their sons and 
daughters pass through the fire, all their children 
would die." And Lowman ^ says, " Such purifications 
were well understood to be an act of consecration to 
Moloch, the son, or prince, of the heavenly host. Sub- 
sequently, they not only passed through the fire as 
devoted to the idol, but were literally burnt as an 
ofi"ering to the god." 



SECTION Y. 



SPECIAL TRUTHS OF REDEMPTION TAUGHT UNDER A 
DOUBLE-SENSE. 

The Theocracy was a form of civil government for 
the nation, and in the conditions of the Hebrew peo- 
ple was the form most expedient for their freedom 
and prosperity ; but it looked much further than 
their national freedom and power, and was indeed 
itself wholly subservient to a higher spiritual design. 
It was best adapted to make and keep the people to 
be worshippers of the one true God, and to spread 
the knowledge and worship of Jehovah among other 

1 Rationale of Heb. Rit. p. 232. 



124 HUMANITY AWAITING REDEMPTION. 

nations; and still spiritual in a further sense than 
teaching the doctrine and service of one true God, 
even the doctrine of the promised redemption of hu- 
manity from the curse consequent upon the fall and 
depravity of the race. The Hebrew nation was to be 
free and powerful, and also worshippers of the one 
true God, for the further end that they might be 
taught, and then might teach others, the mystery of 
God's plan for recovering a fallen race again to holi- 
ness and heaven. Inasmuch as God is civil-Ruler 
not only, but also patron-Deity, we should anticipate 
that his legislation will include institutions directly 
bearing upon Israel's needed preparation for the Re- 
deemer's coming, and in their preparation as a chosen 
people thereby making the world ready for the com- 
ing of its promised deliverer. 

Their Egyptian experience had accustomed them 
to be taught spiritual doctrines by divinely appointed 
ceremonies, as well as civil duties by direct divine 
enactments. There were the common funeral cere- 
monies and sacrificial observances, to which all had 
access, and where were taught the exoteric or public 
doctrine of the gods ; and there were the higher mys- 
teries, to which statesmen, priests, and philosophers 
were initiated, and in which the esoteric or hidden 
and profoundly speculative teachings were presented ; 
and in each, appointed and arranged rites and signifi- 
cant representations were exhibited. And so we 
shall find in God's legislation for Israel sacrificial 
rites and ceremonial observances, required from all 



TEACHING UM)ER A DOUBLE-SENSE. 125 

the people as national institutions and ordinances, and 
which are directly calculated to subserve order and 
national liberty, and to exclude idolatry and promote 
true piety ; while they reach much further, and teach 
the truths yet little comprehended of God's wonder- 
ful plan of redemption. Both' the lower and the 
higher ends are contained in the same required ob- 
servances, and the serious and thoughtful perform- 
ance, by one who sees only the lower design, will 
tend directly to bring him up to the apprehension 
and adoption of the higher. The divinely appointed 
forms are significant of real things, and foreshadow 
coming substances, and a devout, habitual observance 
opens the mind to expect, and prepares it to embrace, 
the reality at the time of its manifestation. It was 
a wise and effective system of national education, 
bringing the people gradually up from sensual appre- 
hension to spiritual discernment. The Mosaic Ritual, 
as an entire system, is thus a schoolmaster to bring 
the nation to the coming Messiah ; but we need now 
to allude only to some more prominent instances of 
its mode of teaching as specimens of the whole. 

1. The Passover Feast. — The meaning designed 
as the most direct and obvious in the Passover was 
a memorial of God's gracious interposition in deliver- 
ing the Hebrews from their Egyptian bondage ; and 
as this was so signal and effective at the opening of 
their national independence, it was ever after held as 
one of the most prominent of Hebrew observances. 



126 HUMANITY AWAITING REDEMPTION. 

It was instituted by God at the time of the last judg- 
ment upon Pharaoh and the Egyptians in the slaying 
of their first-born, and which for the time subdued 
the stubbornness of Israel's oppressors. All the forms 
observed were minutely appropriate to such memo- 
rial. The sprinkling of the blood of the paschal-lamb ; 
eating the flesh with bitter herbs ; doing it in haste, 
and with loins girt, and shoes on, and staves in hand ; 
and the exclusion of all leaven, — all commemorated 
their bitter bondage, the discriminating favor of the 
destroying angel, and their speedy remove from the 
land of their oppressors, as given in full in Exodus.^ 
It was made a perpetual monition of the supremacy 
of Jehovah, their God, over all the gods of Egypt. 

Here was, however, but its lower application. The 
same ceremony was comprehensive of a higher mean- 
ing. It was designed as truly for a type of human 
redemption as for a memorial of Hebrew deliverance. 
The Paschal Lamb foretokened " the Lamb of God 
slain from the foundation of the world," and the 
necessity that " Christ our Passover should be sacri- 
ficed for us," as intentionally by God, as it recalled 
the sparing of Israel's first-born when in Egyptian 
families " there was not a house wherein was not one 
dead." It was subsequently ordered in divine provi- 
dence, that Christ's crucifixion occurred at the day 
and hour in the year for the killing of the Passover 
victim according to the Hebrew Ritual.^ And the 

^ Ex. xii. and xiii. 

* See Matt, xxvii. 62 ; Luke xxii. 7-20 ; John xix. 14. 



TEACHING UNDER A DOUBLE-SENSE. 127 

Lord's Supper then was made the memorial of Christ's 
death, instead of the Passover as typical of it. The 
hidden meaning of the Passover came more and more 
fully out, to the pious and thoughtful Israelite, till 
the nation and the world became ready for the re- 
demption sacrifice of the Lamb of God. 

2. The Ceeemony of the Scape-goat. — This was 
included in the complex ceremony of the sin-offering, 
which involved both a sacrifice and a sign of remis- 
sion. A bullock was to be slain, and the blood 
sprinkled before the holy-place, and put upon the 
horns of the altar. Two young goats were then 
selected, one of which was slain, and the blood 
sprinkled like that of the bullock, while the other 
was let go alive into the wilderness, after the formal 
laying of the high priest's hands on the head, and con-, 
fessing over it the sins of the people. Both the high 
priest and all connected in this transaction were made 
•andean by it, and the parts of the victims were 
carried without the camp and burned with fire ; sig- 
nifying the impurity of the sinner as abominable to 
God, and transferring his uncleanness to all commun- 
ing with him. To a common Israelite this lower na- 
tional defilement and its removal by ceremonial sub- 
stitution were all that he apprehended. But in God's 
design, in addition to this there was a deeper meaning. 
It typified the expiation of human guilt by the substitu- 
tion of Christ's atoning sacrifice, and led the thought- 
ful mind to look to more precious blood than that of 



128 HUMANITY AWAITING REDEMPTION. 

bulls and goats, which could only ceremonially, and 
not literally and eternally, take away sin. Hence 
Christ is termed a sin-ofFering,^ and is said to have 
'• suffered without the gate ; " ^ and his sacrifice is the 
" taking away " of the sins of the world.^ 

3. The Construction of the Tabernacle and 
Temple,. AND Services connected with them. — In 
their common and primary intent, their construction 
and use manifested the presence and power of Jeho- 
vah, their God and King, in the midst of them, and 
confirming the national allegiance to him. The cere- 
monial services were national atonements, and legal 
purifications, propitiatory towards their tutelar-deity, 
and standing to them as a civil community in distinc- 
tion from the idolatrous temples and altars peculiar 
respectively to other organized communities about 
them. But a much higher end was to be attained, 
and a deeper meaning was put into the tabernacle 
and temple service. Hence the precision with which 
Moses was required to fashion every part, and to " see 
that he made all things according to the pattern 
shown in the mount." ^ An extended explanation of 
this is given by the author of the Hebrews, especial- 
ly in the fifth, eigh-th, ninth, and tenth chapters. The 
temple is taken as a figure, a hieroglyphical repre- 
sentation of the coming Gospel Kingdom. The High 
Priest is the Lord Jesus Christ, and the blood of the 

^ 2 Cor. V. 2L * Heb. xiii. 11, 12. 

'^ John i. 29. " Ex. xxv. 40. 



TEACHING UNDER A DOUBLE-SENSE. 129 

sacrifices is for his atoning blood ; the holy of holies is 
heaven, into which this High Priest has entered, for- 
ever making intercession ; and the entire ritual stands 
as the shadow of realities that are coming. They 
could better be understood after Christ had come, and 
died, and risen again; but the very shadows taught the 
studious Israelite much, and made the nation and the 
world anticipate largely the truths of Christ's redemp- 
tion before he came and substantially fulfilled them. 

In addition, thus, to the promises more and more 
full from time to time, and the prophecies more and 
more clear from age to age, and the provision of scribes^ 
and priosts, and schools of the nation for transcribing, 
and reading, and expounding the divine law, there 
was a prepared system of symbols and ceremonies 
with a common meaning for all, and a deeper and more 
important meaning for those capable of spiritual dis- 
cernment. 

4. This Method of Instruction by Double-mean- 
ing requires CAREFUL Discrimination. — Many words 
are used with different meanings, and sometimes the 
same word has directly opposite meanings. The words 
life and death may have a large variety of significa- 
tions, and a careful attention to the connection can 
alone, in some cases, distinguish which is there the 
true meaning. The word let may mean to permit 
or to hind^er ; and the word prevent^ which primarily 
means a fore-going, may be applied in the opposite 
senses of going before to block up, or to open the 
9 



130 HUMANITY AWAITING REDEMPTION. 

way. One may studiously use these ambiguous words 
with intent to perplex, and make his speech a riddle ; 
or with intent to deceive, and make his speech men- 
dacious. The first is trifling, the second is lying ; and 
by no such " paltering in a double sense " can direct 
instruction be given. The Mosaic ritual employs 
nothing of this form of double-meaning. 

There is, further, an assumed form of interpreting 
any scripture, by taking its plain, literal facts and 
incidents as of no account in themselves, and afford- 
ing no historic nor narrated instruction, but as a cor- 
responding spiritual meaning is made out from them. 
" A system of correspondencies " is invented, and all 
plain statement and historic narrative is void of all 
meaning, except as the suggested spiritual truth is 
attained. To a lively fancy, such spiritualizing of all 
plain speech may be very captivating, and taken also 
to be very pious, but no solid instruction can be so 
imparted or received, for nothing determines whether 
the writer and the interpreter have the same spiritual 
meaning in common. This can hardly be known as 
double-sense, for one sense only is of any importance, 
and the unimportant sense is too empty to be made 
a njedium for any reliable spiritual communication. 
Not thus does God, in any part of his Word, allow us 
to presume that we have truly caught his intentional 
spiritual meaning. 

Certain acts may be so plainly representative of 
certain other events, that the former may intentionally 
be made use of to express and teach the latter. Such 



TEACHING UNDER A DOUBLE-SENSE. 131 

methods of communication God not unfrequently eta- 
ploys. By divine direction, Isaiah walks three years, 
naked and barefoot, to warn Egypt of the coming in- 
vasion and captivity of the Assyrians.^ Jeremiah 
hides his girdle in a rock until it is marred, to teach 
that destruction is imminent for Judah.^ Ezekiel por- 
trays the siege of a city upon a tile, sets up an iron 
pan as a wall of defence, &c., representing the coming 
siege of Jerusalem.^ And by representative acts, 
Christ taught humility and kindness by washing the 
disciples' feet.* And Agabus warned Paul of coming 
persecution by binding himself with Paul's girdle.^ 
The act is made intelligently expressive of the intent, 
and so truly teaches the intended lesson ; and such 
teaching hjsigiis is frequent, legitimate, and emphatic. 
It is, however, hardly double-sense ; for the represen- 
tation, though striking, has but one meaning, and 
the sign truly communicates that meaning only. 

There may be such use of language as infen- 
tionally to convey an obvious meaning to one class of 
minds, and at the same time have another meaning 
designed to be apprehended by another class, or by 
the first class in another stage of improvement. There 
are truly two meanings, one apprehended by some, 
and both apprehended by others, and God may use 
language designed for the communication of such 
form of double-meaning. So in relation to the trial 
and temptation of our first parents. The agency of 

' Isa. XX. 2-4. 2 Jer. xiii. 1-11. ^ ^gek. iv. 1-17. 

* John xiii. 4-19. ' Acts xxi. 11. 



132 HUMANITY AWAITING REDEMPTION. 

the serpent was designed to be expressed, and this 
was at once apprehended ; but just as certainly was 
the agency of the devil meant to be included, though 
not apprehended till a later generation.^ So also the 
rest in Canaari was one meaning of Psalm xcv. 11, but 
this included also the meaning of tlie rest of the Sab- 
bath and the rest of heaven.'^ Psalm Ixix. has primary 
reference to David, but it was so expressed as also to 
include the sufferings of Christ and the treachery of 
his enemies.^ And especially predictions of future 
events are not seldom given in a double-meaning. 
Psalm Ixxii. applies directly to Solomon, but has its 
adequate fulfilment only in Christ ; and Joel, i. and ii., 
has intentionally the two meanings of an army of 
locusts and of the Assyrian army ; and the foretelling 
of the destruction of Jerusalem* also includes the 
prediction of the end of the world and the final judg- 
ment. In a rhetorical figure, or the use of a parable, 
only one meaning is given ; but here two distinct 
meanings are contained, and designed, by some minds 
at some time, to be both distinctly understood. 

And this use of a double-sense is still more directly 
employed in teaching higher truths in connection with 
a lower and more familiar meaning, by what is prop- 
erly typical representation. A type differs from a 
sign in that it has two senses, and the sign but one 
intended meaning. The Passover, as a sign, meant 

' Gen. iii. Cf. John viii. 44 ; Heb. ii. 14, 15 ; 1 John iii. 8 ; 
Rev. xii. 9. 

2 Heb. iii. and iv. ^ Cf. John xix. 28, 29 ; Acts i. 20. 

^ Matt. xxiv. 



THEOCRATIC SERVICE SPIRITUAL. 133 

only Israel's deliverance,^ but as a type, it included 
Christ's redemption ; ^ and this, in common with many 
other typical ceremonies, God extensively and suc- 
cessfully used in the instruction of his chosen people. 
One common meaning, studied and followed out in its 
leading direction, opened fairly into higher light and 
more important truth. Nothing was deceptive or de- 
lusive, much less false or contradictory ; both mean- 
ings were true, desirable to be apprehended ; but the 
last was best attained by coming to it through the 
study and practice of the first. 

5. The Theocratic Eitual demanded a Spiritual 
Observance. — We have not unfrequently, but very 
superficially, the derogatory assumption that the He- 
brew ritual was a mere system of sensible, formal 
'observances, tending rather to superstition than spir- 
ituality, and cherishing self-righteousness rather than 
inward holiness. And the reproach is often extended 
to the whole Old Testament, as the sacred oracles of 
the Israelites, that they present God as severe, vin- 
dictive, an object of fear rather than of trust and 
love ; and the religion inculcated to be a gross and 
selfish servility towards God, and supercilious con- 
tempt and hate towards other nations. But with the 
world as it was, and humanity as it had developed 
itself in that age, and the idolatry and cruelty and 
sensuality everywhere abounding, and the necessity 
that the true Theocracy should take the chosen, seed 

' Ex. xii. 14-27. ^ 1 Cor. v. 7. 



134 HUMANITY AWAITING REDEMPTION. 

as it was in itself, and with its surrounding influences ; 
and the plain truth is, that the adaptation of the whole 
Hebrew government, in its civil enactments and reli- 
gious ordinances, to civilize and spiritualize the rising 
generations of Israel, is so direct and wise, and in its 
results so effective and successful, that it proves its 
superhuman origin, and has no lower source than the 
infinite wisdom, and power, and goodness of Jehovah. 
The grace of the gospel could not have been reached 
by the generations of man, and the plan of redemp- 
tion could not have found an age ready that its won- 
ders should have been wrought in it, except through 
just such an intervention as the call of Abraham, and 
the legislation of Moses, and the subsequent teaching 
of divine prophecy and providence secured. 

The Theocracy taught that God was one ; was a 
spirit that could not have any material likeness ; and 
that, though the heaven of heavens could not contain 
him, yet that, in very deed, he dwelt with men ; and 
though he did by no means clear the guilty, yet was 
he the ^' Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffer- 
ing, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping 
mercy for thousands, and forgiving iniquity, trans- 
gression, and sin.'^ No formal obedience alone could 
be acceptable, and the very formality of the divinely 
instituted ritual demanded, and was designed to se- 
cure, a pure service of the heart.^ No language can 
more fully or forcibly enjoin a hearty service, or show 

* See Ex. xxxiv. 7; Lev. xix. 1, 2; Deut. x. 12-19, xxx. 6; 
1 Sam. xvi. 7; Ps. xv. 1-3, li. 1-17; Isa. i. 10-20, Ixvi. 2; 
Joel ii. 12, 13. 



THEOCRACY TO THE CAPTIVITY. 135 

the law more completely written on and filling the 
heart, than such expressions and the experiences re- 
corded by the Psalmist.^ 

So with the civil and religious polity of Israel : the 
grand design was the establishment of a free and 
powerful nation; to cultivate them in the arts of 
peace, and inculcate pure morality and national piety ; 
and though necessarily, in their ignorance and dark- 
ness, appealing to sense, yet in such a way as most 
effectually to reach, elevate, and purify the spirit. 
While all the other peoples of the world continued 
in their idolatry and polytheistic superstitions, the 
Hebrew people, with frequent lapses and many 
apostasies, still preserved the faith and worship of 
the true God, and taught the nations to expect the 
advent of a Divine Prince and Saviour. 



SECTION YI. 

ADMINISTRATION 0¥ THE THEOCRACY TO THE 
BABYLONIAN CAPTIVITY. 

The encampment of Israel at Sinai continued about 
eleven months, during which period the law was 
given and the tabernacle made and furnished ac- 
cording to minutely specific directions; and hence- 
forth the established form of worship was maintained, 

* Ps. xix., Ixiii., Ixxxiv., cxix., &c. 



136 HUMANITY AWAITING REDEMPTION. 

sacrifices offered, and ceremonies observed according 
to the directions of the inspired Ritual. The Shechi- 
na, or bright appearance of God's presence and glory, 
was perpetually with the nation, and gave to them 
the direction of their future movements by peculiar 
indications when to move and where to encamp.^ 
God was thus manifestly in the midst of them, and 
known by them as Jehovah, their national King and 
patron-Deity. It was, however, convenient and ex- 
pedient that a human ruler should be interposed 
between the divine king and people, and it was the 
prerogative of God to indicate his will in the deter- 
mination of whom it should be that they were to 
acknowledge as his vicegerent in the government. 
While the transactions at Sinai had been in progress, 
the will of God had been fully manifested that Moses 
was his lawgiver and constituted leader.^ When, after- 
wards, Moses' authority was -questioned and resisted, 
God vindicated it terribly and effectually.^ 

1. The Theocracy under Moses. — Just thirteen 
months and twenty days from the exodus,^ the Israel- 
ites, by the command of Moses from the Lord, took 
their departure from Sinai, and the cloud of the Lord 
was taken up from the tabernacle, and the tribes 
followed in their prescribed order, with their stan- 
dards, 'officers, and people, and the cloud next rested 

^ Num. ix. 15-23. 

^ Ex. xxiv. 9-18, xxxii. 33, 34, xxxiii. 8-11, xxxiv. 29-35. 
^ Num. xii. 1-15, xvi. 1-35. •• Num. x. 11. 



THEOCRACY TO THE CAPTIVITY. 137 

in the wilderness of Paran. So, journeying from day 
to day direct towards Canaan, they came in a short 
time to the borders of their promised possession, 
and a man from each tribe constituted a commission 
to go through the land and return a true report. 
Within forty days they return, and report in great 
praise of the country ; but all except two, Joshua and 
Caleb, are terrified and utterly unmanned by the 
power of the people and the defence of their cities. 
" We be not able to«go against this people." "We 
were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we 
were in their sight.'' ^ 

With this report the timid Israelites were over- 
whelmed with despair, and evince how little they are 
prepared to conquer their promised inheritance, and 
take an independent place amid powerful nations. 
They murmur and clamorously rebel, and determine 
to make themselves " a captain and return to Egypt." 
The contradictory report of Joshua and Caleb, and 
the interposed persuasion of Aaron, and the authority 
of Moses, avail nothing ; they become furious and 
headstrong in their riotous • purpose, and proceed to 
stone all opposed.^ A more courageous and disci- 
plined generation must come up, or the great designs 
of their fathers' covenant and promise must fail. In 
the midst of their turbulent frenzy and obstiDacy, the 
glory of the Lord in the tabernacle suddenly mani- 
fested the divine displeasure, and in terrible majesty 
Jehovah declares that he is about to destroy them 

^ Num. xiii. 27-33. ^ j^y^^ ^iv. 1-10. 



138 HUMANITY AWAITING REDEMPTION. 

utterly and instantly. Moses interceded, and Jehovah 
spared, but announced that they should all turn back 
into the wilderness, and journey and die there in their 
wandering till another generation should be born and 
disciplined, worthy with Joshua and Caleb to go over 
Jordan and plant their divine institutions in the land. 
While this enunciation was being given, the ten 
cowardly spies died by a plague from the Lord, and 
the mutiny was hushed ; but the spirit of the people 
was no more loyal than before. * In spite of warnings 
and prohibitions, they desperately presumed to go 
against the Canaanites, and ascended ^' to the hill-top," 
where the Amalekites and Canaanites discomfit and 
destroy them.^ There is no alternative to the sur- 
vivors but to go back to the wilderness till " their 
carcasses fall there." 

'^ After the number of the days in which ye searched 
the land, even forty days, each day for a year shall ye 
bear your iniquities, even forty years ; " ^ so God 
threatened, and so God dealt by them, and effected 
the necessary training of a disciplined, hardy, coura- 
geous generation. In Numbers ^ is given the record 
of their wanderings and several encampments, and 
directly under Moses' leading and Jehovah's super- 
vision they gained the confirmed habit of orderly 
conduct and prompt obedience. By removals and 
restings of the glory of his presence, the Lord con- 
trolled their marches and encampments.* And by 

^ Num. xiv. 10-45. ^ Num. xiv. 34. 

' Chap, xxxiii. ^ Num. ix. 16-23. 



THEOCRACY TO THE CAPTIVITY. 139 

precise arrangements and relative positions to each 
other and to the tabernacle, with their captains, 
Moses systematized all their movements with mili- 
tary exactness,^ and thereby made them to become 
both good soldiers and good citizens. They learned 
subordination, precision, prompt execution ; and from 
long slavery there came out a race of hardy and 
trusty freemen. 

Aaron, Moses' brother and high priest, died at Mount 
Hor, and his son Eleazer was designated by God, and 
invested by Moses -with the oflSce of high priest ; ^ 
and then, a short time after, when they made their 
second approach to Canaan, Moses ascended Mount 
Nebo by God's direction, and from the pinnacle of 
Pisgah looked westward over the Jordan, and saw the 
outspread hills and plains of Canaan, and died there 
alone with God in the mountain, " and the Lord buried 
him." ^ Besides particular transgressions of Aaron 
and Moses, by which they forfeited the favor of per- 
sonally entering the promised inheritance of Israel, 
there was a national result to be attained in their suc- 
cessive deaths and the transmission of their offices to 
other incumbents. It accustomed the people to the 
necessary succession of magistrates, and habituated 
them to expect and respect the appointments of God 
in the places of the dead. Had Moses and Aaron 
lived to go over Jordan, and added the veneration 
and affection which would ensue from conquering the 
land for them to all the influence of their counsel and 

^ Num. X. 11-28. 2 j^u^i, ^x. 22-29. ^ pg^.^ xxxiv. 1-6. 



140 HUMANITY AWAITING EEDEMPTION. 

command in the forty years' wanderings from the exo- 
dus, it would have been a more difficult matter to 
content the people with any successors of such emi- 
nent leaders ; but by the removing of their rulers at 
different times, and dividing the glory of the grand 
events and achievements from Egypt to the possession 
of Canaan, the people readily learned submission and 
obedience to such as Jehovah should appoint for them. 

2. The Administration of the Theocracy under 
Joshua. — All the generation w4iich left Egypt were 
now dead, except Joshua and Caleb, the faithful com- 
missioners who had spied the land thirty-nine years 
before ; and thus, besides these two, all Israel's thou- 
sands were under sixty years of age, counting those 
then under twenty years who had not been numbered 
at Sinai.i Here, then, were a people in full vigor, 
hardy and independent, disciplined and taught by se- 
vere experiences to trust and obey their officers, and 
acknowledge Jehovah as their King and Lord. Joshua 
had already, by God, been invested with the office of 
chief captain in Moses' stead, and been specially com- 
missioned to make full conquest of the land of Canaan, 
and promised the constant presence and counsel of 
Jehovah.2 Within three days he roused the people 
to prepare for the expedition ; made Reuben, Gad, and 
the half tribe of Manasseh, whose possessions had 
already been assigned them east of the Jordan, to join 
in the war of conquest ; and sending two men to spy 

' ' Num. xiv. 29. ^ Jq^\^^ i i_9_ 



THEOCRACY TO THE CAPTIVITY. 141 

the land, tie marched, and made his military encamp- 
ment on the east bank of the Jordan. Here again 
were three days' solemn preparation, and receiving 
divine directions for following the sacred ark, borne 
by the priests, in the miraculous passage of the river. 
Here began the series of divinely assisted successes, 
which much further disciplined and matured the 
chosen people for their great mission, in teaching to 
the idolatrous nations the power and supremacy of 
the one true God. 

After the crossing of the Jordan there occurred the 
destruction of Jericho, whose walls fell to the ground 
with no human instrumentality, save the shout of the 
army and the blowing of the priests' trumpets ; and 
then the manifestation of an omniscient watch which 
detected the sin of Achan, and the severe punish- 
ment which warned against all future appropriating 
of the accursed, wealth of Canaan to private posses- 
sion.' After which followed the perpetual victory of 
the army, in overcoming one Canaanitish city and 
people after another, for about seven years of unin- 
terrupted conflict, conquest, and complete extirpation 
of the native population. The whole land was so 
brought into possession, that what of its inhabitants 
were not utterly exterminated, as had been required, 
were at least so subdued or terrified that they yield- 
ed unquestioning service and submission to their re- 
sistless invaders. 

And here occurs the serious question of the moral 

' Josh. vii. 



142 HUMANITY AWAITING REDEMPTION. 

right of Israel to invade and exterminate the Canaan- 
ites. To put it directly, as infidelity aflSrms it to have 
been, Was it not cruel, inhuman, and horribly wicked 
for this foreign people to come and slay old and young, 
and take permanent possession ? If we look to noth- 
ing higher than humanity in those transactions, they 
could not be justified ; they must be most sternly re- 
buked and condemned. No man, and no numbers of 
men, have the right so to invade and destroy their 
fellows. But this is not the light in which to put and 
judge these proceedings. It was not Joshua's com- 
mand, and the people's ready execution, that stood 
ultimately responsible. Jehovah was their King and 
their God, and he commanded that " their eye should 
not pity, nor their hand spare." ^ And their God was 
also the God of all flesh, and thus the real question 
is. May God command one people to exterminate an- 
other, and may that people righteously execute such 
command ? We do not look the truth directly in the 
face, till we question God's right to do what he will 
with his own. And here we may say, on both sides, 
reverently and unhesitatingly, that the right of God is 
not in his mere arbitrary will, nor in this that all flesh 
is his by creation and power ; but it is in this, that God 
is Absolute Reason, and that he should fix his purpose 
and execute his will universally in the end of reason. 
We, who, as human, can only have a finite endowment 
of reason, may not always, now or ever, be competent 
to judge the Absolute in all cases ; and yet, so far as 

' Dent vii. 16. 



THEOCRACY TO THE CAPTIYITY. 143 

divine purposes and acts come within the sphere of 
human comprehension, we may judge the rightness 
of such purposes and acts. God himself permits it, 
and appeals to such reason within the sphere of its 
finite compass.^ 

The following considerations sustain the divine 
equity and benevolence in the transaction. God is 
the moral governor of all people, and he has in nature 
given sufficient light to read and know his being and 
authority .2 

The nations of Canstan were notoriously wicked, 
and had been long spared by God, and were now ripe 
for judgment ; ^ and he might have wholly exterminat- 
ed them righteously by some providential judgment. 

He commissioned Israel to be his authorized execu- 
tioners,* and made this work a discipline for them and 
for their warning.^ It showed to them and the nations 
God's abhorrence of idolatry. In this is enough to 
silence all questioning. 

Joshua lived to make the conquest of Canaan, and 
settle the tribes in it according to their assigned por- 
tions, and faithfully and successfully administered the 
government for several years afterwards, while the 
people were at peace, cultivating the soil and building 
up the ruined cities. The tabernacle had been set up 
at Shechem, and there, when he had lived one hun- 
dred and ten years, Joshua summoned a full convocation 
of the people, and recounted before them the wonders 

^ Isa. i. 18, V. 3, 4 ; Ezek. xviii. 25-29. 

2 Rom. i. 19, 20, ii. 14, 15. =* Gen. xv. 16. 

* Num. xxxiii. 50-56. ^ Deut. vii. 



144 HUMANITY AWAITING REDEMPTION. 

of God to their fathers and to them, and gave them 
his solemn charge to be faithful to God and their 
national covenant, and then died, committing them to 
the care and protection of Jehovah.^ 

3. The Administration under the Judges. — For 
some time after Joshua's death, and while the elders 
who survived him remained, the people were peace- 
ful, industrious, and obedient to the law, without atiy 
appointed head of the nation. ^ The prudence of 
Moses in their wanderings, and the prowess of Joshua 
in their wars, had made these chief captains necessary 
in their times ; but the day for almost exclusive mili- 
tary training was past, and a more popular civil 
method of governing might be admitted. Instead of 
a single ruler, God designated the tribe of Judah to 
have the pre-eminence in counsel and leading meas- 
ures ; ^ and under the precedence of this tribe there 
were various successful expeditions against the uneasy 
remnants of some of the Canaanites, while some still 
held themselves in their strong places, notwithstand- 
ing all efforts made to dislodge them.* 

Under the influence of these remaining idolaters, 
and the 'Hebrew tendency to relapse into supersti- 
tion, the people, after the first generations passed 
away, began to forsake God and serve Balaam and 
Ashtaroth ; ^ and God, according to his previous an- 
nouncement to make his special providences conform 

* Josh, xxiii., xxiv. ^ Josh. xxiv. 31. 

' Judges i. 1-20. * Judges i. 22-36. ^ Judges ii. 13. 



THEOCRACY TO THE CAPTIVITY. 145 

to their national fidelity or rejection of him, began to 
give their enemies power over them, and to oppress 
them with severe exactions.^ Then came the admin- 
istration of Judges, whom the Lord raised up for 
their deliverance.^ These judges were a different 
order of magistracy from the chief ruler or captain, 
as in the case of Moses and Joshua, who had been 
permanent in their office through all changes. The 
judges were raised up for a special emergency, and on 
critical occasions. They were for the time in full 
authority as Jehovah's vicegerents, and held both 
judicial and executive power, declared war, headed 
the army, made peace, and often maintained their 
rule after the exigency which had called them out 
had passed by. But they exacted no annual revenue, 
kept no royal courts, had no badge of official dignity, 
and designated no successors.^ Sometimes they 
judged all Israel; but in other cases their jurisdiction 
was partial, and in some cases two were contempo- 
rary. They grew at the last, under Eli and Samuel, 
to be more permanent, powerful, and dictatorial. In 
one case, Deborah, a woman, in connection with Barak, 
judged Israel forty years. Their appointment began 
with Othniel, on occasion of eight years' oppression 
of Chusan-rishathaim, of Mesopotamia, and in all, to 
Samuel, were fourteen in number, and the sum of their 
periods of office was four hundred and ninety years. 
There may have been intervals, and perhaps overlap- 
pings, and the exact time from Joshua's death to 
» Judges ii. U, 15. ^ judges ii. 16-19. ^ judges ii. 16-23. 

10 



146 HUMANITY AWAITING REDEMPTION. 

Samuel's anointing Saul as king cannot well be de- 
termined, but will not have been far from five hun- 
dred years. Very special interpositions of Jehovah 
by some of the judges, particularly Deborah, Gideon, 
Jephtha, Samson, and Samuel, made conspicuous his 
power and protection of his people, and his rebuke 
for their backslidings ; and the taking of the Ark of 
the Covenant by the Philistines under Eli not only 
rebuked Israel, but confounded the idols of the hea- 
then in their own temples. So God kept his people 
together before the nations till the days of Samuel. 

4. The Theocratic Administration under Kings. 
— In the old age of Samuel, he made his sons asso- 
ciates with him in the judge's office ; but they became 
Unjust and mercenary, " accepted bribes and per- 
verted judgment." It was also a critical time wdth 
the nation, which was then dangerously beset with 
powerful enemies. The people were dissatisfied and 
alarmed, and the elders in concert repaired to* Samuel 
at Ramah, and asked directly for a king to rule them, 
after the manner of other nations.^ This request for 
a king displeased Samuel ; but on inquiry of the Lord, 
the divine answer affirmed the request to be unright- 
eous, and yet directed Samuel to a compliance with 
their wish. Samuel prophetically announced to them 
the consequences of their choice, and the exactions 
and oppressions their kings would make upon the 
people, and the burdens the nation must bear to sup- 

* 1 Sam. viii. 1-5. 



THEOCRACY TO THE CAPTIVITY. 147 

port the royal state and dignity ; but the elders, never- 
theless, were persistent in their purpose, and by God's 
direction Samuel complied with their request, though 
holding it unreasonable, and sent them away with the 
understanding a king would be found and inaugu- 
rated. 

Saul, a son of Kish, of the tribe of Benjamin, was 
hunting the strayed asses of his father ; and becoming 
wearied and discouraged by a long search, he said to 
his servant that he would go to the city of Samuel 
and take counsel of the man of God. At the entrance 
of the city Samuel met them, and having been already 
directed by God, he privately there anointed Saul 
king over Israel. Soon after, a solemn convocation 
of the people at Mizpeh was made, and the lot was 
cast by the prophet, to determine before all the peo- 
ple who their king should be, first by tribes, then by 
families, and then man by man. First the lot fell to 
the tribe of Benjamin, then to the family of Matri ; 
and ultimately among the individuals of the family, 
the lot fell to the very man whom Samuel had already 
prophetically and privately anointed. When found 
and presented, his great stature and comely form and 
features struck at once the popular favor, and by ac- 
clamation they acknowledge him their king. .He was 
soon publicly inaugurated at Gilgal, and divinely in- 
vested with the regal authority. 

Israel's sin in seeking a king was rather in the 
manner and motive than in the fact. Moses had in 
his day anticipated such a result, and had given such 



148 HUMANITY AWAITING REDEMPTION. 

directions as permitted, and even encouraged, the 
nation to have a king.^ Their motive in asking a 
king, though occasioned by the age of Samuel and 
the immorality of his sons, was the gratification of 
vanity and national glory, and too much after the 
custom of the heathen about them; for they said, 
after Samuel's prudential expostulations, "No, but 
we will have a king over us, that we also may be 
like all the nations, and that our king may judge us 
and fight our battles." ^ But most reprehensible was 
it that they forgot their theocratic allegiance, and 
desired a king incompatible with the claims of Jeho- 
vah. Says the Lord to Samuel, " They have not re- 
jected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should 
not reign over them." ^ They had neither consulted 
God nor his prophets ; they passed by the high priest 
and the Shechina ; and of their own motion they de- 
manded a king, to the exclusion of Jehovah, already 
their legitimate sovereign. God allowed their re- 
quest, and made it the very means of punishing their 
sin, and disciplining their disloyalty to him. He 
maintained his supremacy, and held his constitutional 
authority, and in giving them a king as he pleased, 
he made the king to be his viceroy, and no indepen- 
dent monarch. The government was still a Theoc- 
racy, and the human king w^as God's vicegerent as 
truly as had been their chief captains and their 
judges. This peculiarity is to be recognized through 
all the kingly succession, that the human king acts 

» Deut. xvii. 14-20. ^ ^ g^ju. viii. 20. ^ 1 Sam. viii. 7. 



THEOCRACY TO THE CAPTIVITY. 149 

in Jehovah's -stead and by his authority. He regu- 
lated the religious arrangements of the courses of the 
priests' service, the orders of the singers, and the em- 
ployments of the Levites under the prescribed ritual ; ^ 
he could arrange and officer the army ,2 and he could 
appoint the civil magistrates for executing -the laws 
through the land ; ^ but he could originate no new laws 
or ceremonies not in execution of the divine statutes, 
except as committed to him by the divine Sovereign. 
Hence the rebukes and threatening of the prophets 
to disobedient kings were legitimate ; they were Jeho- 
vah's accredited messengers calling delinquent vice- 
gerents to account. 

The first year of Saul's reign was without reproach, 
but after the second year he began to exhibit the 
truth of Samuel's forewarning. He raised a large 
body-guard of three thousand men, two thousand for 
himself, and one thousand he committed to the charge 
of his son Jonathan.* He offered sacrifices, presump- 
tuously, and was plainly told the kingdom would go 
from his family ; ^ and some time after, for direct dis- 
obedience, Jehovah took the kingdom from him, 
and gave it in his own purpose to Saul's neighbor.^ 
After this Samuel dropped all intercourse with Saul, 
and under the Lord's direction privately anointed the 
youthful son of Jesse to be the future king of Israel." 
After this Saul became irritable, jealous, and reck- 

^ 1 Chron. xv., xvi., and xxiii.-xxvii. ^ 2 Sam. xxiii. ; 1 Kings iv. 
^ 2 Chron. xix. * 1 Sam. xiii. 1, 2. ^1 Sam. xiii. 

^ 1 Sam. XV. 7 1 Sam. xvi. 13. 



150 HUMANITY AWAITING REDEMPTION. 

less ', and as the Lord had forsaken him, he applied, 
after SamueFs death, to the woman of Endor, who 
had a familiar spirit ; and to the surprise of the wo- 
man and the confusion of Saul, the dead Samuel ap- 
peared, and announced his doom, that on the next 
day he should be with Samuel in the eternal world. 
In the morrow's battle with the Philistines on Mount 
Gilboa, his army was defeated ; and as he was hard 
pressed by his enemies, he fell upon his own sword, 
and died, he and his armor-bearer.^ Saul reigned 
forty years. 

When David heard of the death of Saul, he in- 
quired of God, who answered by sending him up 
from Ziklag to Hebron, in the tribe of Judah, and the 
men of Judah came to him and anointed him king 
over the house of Judah ; ^ but Abner, Saul's chief 
captain, took Ishbosheth, a son of Saul, and made him 
king over all Israel beside Judah.^ After seven years, 
Ishbosheth was slain, and all the tribes came to David 
in Hebron, and made him king over them all.^ 

David's reign was prosperous, and Israel became 
numerous and powerful, fighting many battles and 
overcoming their enemies, and maintaining the wor- 
ship of the true God at the sanctuary. David greatly 
delighted in the holy-days' convocations at the taber- 
nacle ; arranged the order of the priests in their min- 
istrations, and the singers ; and wrote the larger por- 
tion of their devotional Psalms. But his generally 

' 1 Sam. xxxi. 4, 5. ^ 2 Sam. ii. 4. 

3 2 Sam. ii. 8, 9. "2 Sam. v. 5. 



THEOCRACY TO THE CAPTIVITY. 151 

holy life was dishonored by some outbreaking in- 
iquities, as in the matter of Uriah ; and the retribu- 
tive judgments of God followed, marking before the 
nation and carrying to his own conscience the evi- 
dence of the divine displeasure. The revolt and 
death of Absalom, the incest of Amnon, and the de- 
structive pestilence when he numbered the people 
of his own motion, officiously and vain-gloriously, — 
all chastened his spirit, and induced bitter repent- 
ance and deep humility. In his last days, his son 
Adonijah attempted to usurp the kingdom which God 
had intimated should descend to Solomon, and David 
sent at once Nathan the prophet, and the high priest, 
and the chief captain, and they anointed Solomon 
king ; and David gave to him a special charge, and 
then died, having reigned, in all, forty years.^ 

The reign of Solomon was peaceful and long, and 
Israel rose to the height of national greatness and 
renown. The costly temple was built, and the Ark 
of God transferred to it from the tabernacle ; and all 
the imposing ceremonial worship of the daily services 
and yearly solemnities brought the people before the 
Lord, advancing them in the knowledge of what the 
Covenant with their fathers and the theocratic reign 
of Jehovah meant to them as a people, and in prepara- 
tion of the world for the Messiah's coming. And yet, 
with all this teaching, and in many persons learning, 
the will and work of the Lord, the long prosperity 
of Solomon's reign was more than fallen humanity 

. * 1 Kings ii. 10, 11. 



152 HUMANITY AWAITING REDEMPTION. 

could bear. Wealth flowed in on every side, luxuries 
abounded, and sensuality greatly overpowered tbe 
king and the nation. Solomon disobeyed the injunc- 
tion against foreign marriages, and multiplied his 
wives from the heathen nations, and especially an 
Egyptian princess,^ and made alliance with Pharaoh, 
and opened the way for all Egyptian superstitions 
and idolatries again to come in to the people. As 
Solomon grew old, he was in this way led into hea- 
then practices, and set up altars and built high places 
over against Jerusalem..^ This rapid religious de- 
generacy demanded an effectual check, and God con- 
vulsed and divided the kingdom, and brought out a 
lasting separation between the idolatrous and the 
true worshippers. 

In the latter part of the reign of Solomon, Jeroboam 
became conspicuous as a man of enterprise and valor, 
and Solomon promoted him to be captain of the tribe 
of Joseph. The prophet Ahijah was commissioned 
by the Lord to announce to him that the nation 
should be rent in twain, and that ten tribes would 
come under his sway, because of the national idol- 
atry, but that the consummation should be delayed 
during the life of Solomon. Owing probably to Jer- 
oboam's insolence and to Solomon's jealousy, Solomon 
sought the life of Jeroboam, and the latter fled to 
Egypt, and was protected and favored by Shishak, the 
then reigning Plitaraoh. Shishak was doubtless the 
first king of Manetho's twenty-second dynasty, known 

* 1 Kings iii. 1. '1 Kings xi. 1-8. 



THEOCRACY TO THE CAPTIVITY. 153 

on the monuments as Sheshonk, and probably had 
gained his crown by violence or treachery from Sol- 
omon's father-in-law, as the last king of Manetho's 
twenty-first dynasty ; ^ and thus Shishak was ready to 
foster the refugee from Solomon. So soon as Solo- 
mon died; having reigned forty years, Jeroboam re- 
turned, and was present when all Israel had gathered 
at Shechem to make Solomon's son, Rebohoam, king 
in the place of his father. At his instigation they 
demanded of Rehoboam a diminution of the taxes, 
which the old counsellors of Solomon advised him to 
make, but the young men advised him to assert his 
prerogative, and threaten stronger exactions. So Reho- 
boam haughtily answered ; and at once, on the signal 
from Jeroboam, an uproar was made, the council was 
broken up, and the tribes, except those of Judah and 
Benjamin, went to their own homes. Rehoboam, in 
the same haughty spirit as his threat, sent his treas- 
urer to collect their augmented taxes, whom they 
stoned to death, and stood out in open mutiny. Re- 
hoboam cowered and fled in fear to the fortifications 
in Jerusalem, and the ten tribes made Jeroboam 
their king, while Rehoboam held the allegiance of 
the two tribes, Judah and Benjamin. An army of 
the two tribes was at once ready, with a hundred 
and fifty thousand men to fight the ten rebellious 
tribes into submission ; but by the prophet Shemaiah, 
the Lord forbade Rehoboam to go out to battle, for 
this whole matter had been under his providential 

* Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians, Chapter II. 



154 HUMANITY AWAITING REDEMPTION. 

supervision. Henceforth the Hebrews were two king- 
doms — that of Israel and that of Judah, Israelites 
and Jews. The Israelites made Samaria in the lot of 
Ephraim their capital, while the Jews kept the old 
capital at Jerusalem, which was nearly on the divid- 
ing line between the lot of Judah and of Benjamin. 
The one kingdom was often known also as that of 
Ephraim, as the other was that of Judah, from the 
tribal locality of the royal residence. 

5. After the Division, to Israel's Dispersion and 
Judah's Babylonian Captivity. — The revolt of the 
ten tribes was of the Lord, in the sense that he over- 
ruled what he condemned as wrong, for the better 
fulfilment of his great purpose to fit the world for the 
promised Redeemer's coming. Their revolt was a 
rejection of God as their king, a rebellion against 
their legitimate sovereign, and alienation of them- 
selves from the Abrahamic Covenant and Promise, 
and thus cutting themselves off from all the privileges 
and prerogatives of the theocratic state. Henceforth 
the history of Israel as a nation is of no more interest 
in the covenant institutions of Jehovah, than the his- 
tory of any Gentile nation, except as their old con- 
nection and still close neighborhood with Judah had 
a more special influence upon the kingdom and peo- 
ple who remained in covenant. God continued his 
warnings by occasional prophets, and announcing his 
threatened judgments, and thus gave them opportu- 
nity for repentance and return to allegiance ; but as 



THEOCRACY TO THE CAPTIVITY. 155 

a kingdom, they rejected all warnings, and steadily 
departed further from the true worship till they be- 
came lost in history among the nations. We only 
outline their experience to their final dispersion. 

Besides Jeroboam, with whom the revolt com- 
menced, and who reigned twenty-two years, there 
were eighteen kings, and two periods of interreg- 
num of twelve and of eight years respectively, and 
making for the duration of the separate kingdom of 
Israel two hundred and sixty years and seven months 
in all. Of all these successive kings it is specifically 
recorded that " they did evil in the sight of the Lord," 
and among; them ten, at least, lost their lives by vio- 
lence. At once it was manifest how dangerous to 
the permanent separation from Judah it would be to 
permit the Israelites so disposed to go up to Jerusa- 
lem at the yearly feasts and solemn convocation, and 
on consultation with his courtiers, Jeroboam made 
two golden images of the Egyptian Apis, known as 
" the golden calves," and placed one at Dan, in the 
tribe of Naphtali, at the northern extreme of the king- 
dom, and the other at Bethel, within the tribe of Ephra- 
im, and at the southern portion of the kingdom, and 
erected temples and altars, and appointed priests not 
of the tribe of Levi, and established feast days, and 
thus introduced a superstitious and idolatrous wor- 
ship after the Egyptian model. Some pious Israelites 
remained and refused to join in the idolatrous prac- 
tices,^ but the most of the nation became confirmed in 
pagan worship. 

1 1 Kings xix. 18. 



156 HUMANITY AWAITING REDEMPTION, 

While Jeroboan was burning incense at his idola- 
trous altar at Bethel, a prophet from Judah announced 
to him the destruction of this altar and worship by a 
future king of Judah, Josiah by name, and Jeroboam 
in great anger stretched out his arm to arrest the 
prophet ; but in the act the arm was paralyzed, and 
the altar burst asunder and scattered around the fire 
and ashes. The terrified king was humbled, and 
asked the prophet's intercession to ' God for his 
restoration, which was done, and his impotent arm 
healed ; but in his perverseness he still clave to his 
idolatries, and multiplied pi:ofane priest^, and kept his 
people from the Lord. His son Abijah was dangerous- 
ly sick, and his judgment and conscience constrained 
him to inquire of the Lord, and not of his idols ; but 
lest his people should recognize his want of confi- 
dence in his gods, he sent his wife secretly to Ahijah, 
at Shiloh, to make the inquiry. This old prophet, who 
in Solomon's reign had foretold Jeroboam of his com- 
ing elevation to the kingdom, w^as now blind ; but fore- 
warned of Godj he announced who she was, and re- 
buked the hypocritical concealment,, and uttered the 
curse of the Lord upon the house of Jeroboam for his 
wickedness. The child should die or ever she entered 
the capital city, and the only favor given was this 
natural death, for all the rest of the house should die 
by violence. '' The Lord will smite Israel as a reed 
is shaken in the water, and he will root up Israel out 
of this good land which he gave to their fathers, and 



THEOCRACY TO THE CAPTIVITY. ' 157 

will scatter them beyond the river, because they have 
made their groves, provoking the Lord to anger." ^ 

Jeroboam warred against Judah, and the battle was 
set in array, eight hundred thousand men of Israel 
against four hundred thousand men of Judah, in the 
days of Abijah, son and successor to Rehoboam. 
Standing on a mountain over against the army of 
Israel, Abijah reproved them for their idolatry and 
rebellion against the family of David, and would dis- 
suade them from fighting against the people of the 
Lord God of their fathers. Jeroboam secretly di- 
rected an ambush to get in stealth behind the army 
of Judah, and when Abijah and Judah knew it, they 
put their trust in God, and shouted the battle-cry, and 
attacked and slew of Israel five hundred thousand 
men, took Bethel and many other cities, and so weak- 
ened and discouraged Israel, that Judah was left in 
peace of Jeroboam ever after. At length Jeroboam 
died of some divine judgment, for it is said, " The 
Lord struck him and he died."^ 

Then came treachery, and assassinations, and suicides 
among the kings of Israel, till Ahab took the throne, 
and with his heathen wife, Jezebel, filled Israel with 
abominations.^ Elijah, the Lord's prophet, often re- 
buked and reproved him, tested the supremacy of 
Jehovah against Baal by the answer of fire from the 
Lord, and, threatened him that the dogs should lick 
his blood in the vineyard of Naboth, which he had 
robbed by violence. Ahab was s^^i" in battle with 

^ 1 Kings xiv. 15. , ^ 2 Chron. xiii. ^ 1 Kings xvi. 



158 HUMANITY AWAITING REDEMPTION. 

the Syrians, and they washed the blood from his 
chariot; which the dogs licked up in this stolen vine- 
yard. Jehu followed him in the kingdom, and with 
burning zeal for a time slew seventy of Ahab's sons, 
and Jezebel, Ahab's pagan wife, and the priests of 
Baal, and demolished this idol's temple and altars ; 
but he left the Egyptian golden calves, and " took no 
heed to walk in the law of the Lord God." After 
Elijah there were the prophets Jonah, Amos, and 
Hosea, who continued the divine warnings till the 
kingdom was given over to destruction. The later 
kings reigned short and wickedly, and were violently 
destroyed till Hoshea took the throne. "Shalmanezer, 
king of Assyria, conquered Israel, and subjected the 
nation to tribute, and when Hoshea made alliance 
with Egypt, and refused to pay the tribute, Shalma- 
nezer again invaded Israel, and carried the people 
captive to Assyria, and put them in Halah, and in 
Habor, by the river Gozan, and in the cities of the 
Medes.i 

Ere long the king of Assyria brought families from 
different provinces of his empire, and settled them 
in the vacated territories of the captive ten tribes. 
These blended the worship of Jehovah with that of 
their provincial gods, and were known in after gener- 
ations as Samaritans with whom the Jews would have 
no dealings.2 The ten tribes so dispersed »in Persia 
and Media have become lost from all historic recogni- 
tion, and only such as joined themselves with Judah 

* 2 Kings xviii. 9-12. J^ John iv. 9. 



THEOCRACY TO THE CAPTIVITY. 159 

previous to the dispersion Lave been retained within 
the circumscription of the Abrahamic Promise. 

We return to take up the notice of the Theocracy 
under the kings, and follow the experiences of the 
kingdom of Judah from the division of the nation, 
which people were henceforth known as the Jews. 
Many pious Israelites joined themselves to Judah and 
the worship of Jehovah from the first, and at subse- 
quent times the defection of the godly from Israel to 
the Jews was frequent and numerous, and almost 
universally the priests and Levites, who had no 
countenance from the Israelitish grovernment,^ left 
their cities in Israel for those in Judah. The The- 
ocratic government and Ritual service, together with 
the responses of the Oracle in the holy of holies, con- 
centrated their influences upon this limited and better 
portion of the chosen people, and in connection with 
the national competition for superiority over the re- 
volted tribes, their religious culture greatly elevated 
the Jewish character. There was more genuine piety 
and firm adherence to their Covenant than any former 
age had witnessed. So was it mainly with Judah till 
the time of the Israelites' dispersion, when the absence 
of national rivalry and the universal example of pagan 
idolatry allowed the strong under-current towards 
heathen superstitions to gain force, and finally gver- 
flow in wide-spread pagan practices and rejection of 
covenant obligations. 

Beginning with Rehoboam, who reigned seventeen 

^ 2 Chron. xi. 13, 14, xiii. 9. 



160 HUMANITY AWAITING REDEMPTION. 

years, there were to the Babylonian captivity twenty 
reigns, one of which was that of queen Athaliah, 
making in all the sum of three hundred and ninety- 
four years. The two hundred and sixty years and 
seven months of the Israelitish kingdom ran out in 
the sixth year of Hezekiah, king of Judah, and from 
thence to the Babylonian captivity was a period of 
one hundred and thirty-three years and six months, at 
the termination of the eleventh year of Zedekiah, 
king of Judah. Of the Jewish reigns before the 
dispersion, there were six whose influence was good, 
embracing a period of more than two hundred years ; 
and there were also six whose influence was evil, but 
whose duration was so shortened that they embraced 
but about fifty years. After the dispersion of Israel 
the change was rapid and lamentable. Passing the 
remaining years of Hezekiah's reign, which were 
twenty-three, and all good, there were six evil kings, 
reigning in all eighty years, and only one godly reign, 
that of good Josiah, of thirty-one years' continuance. 
The lapse in iniquity and idolatry was fearful, making 
the visits of divine judgments a necessity, if the de- 
fection from God was to be arrested. 

Manasseh's most wicked reign followed that of 
pious Hezekiah, and he filled the land with idolatry, 
setting up his images in the very temple, and wrought 
abomination in Judah more than any king before him. 
God, by his prophets, announced the coming destruc- 
tion : " I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish, 



THEOCRACY TO THE CAPTIVITY. 161 

wiping it and turning it upside down." ^ Amon fol- 
lowed Manasseh, and also imitated his wickedness, 
but in two years was assassinated in his own palace. 
The prophets Naham, Joel, and Habakkuk taught and 
warned in these evil times ; yet would the kings and 
people not be reclaimed. The good reign of Josiah 
partially restored the defection and delayed the ruin ; 
but it was only a respite, and not a deliverance, for 
there was no confirmed reformation. In his day were 
the prophets Zephaniah and Jeremiah, by whom God 
said he spared Judah for Josiah's sake, but that ulti- 
mately he would remove Judah as he had Israel from 
his sight, and reject Jerusalem as the place for his 
name. 2 

Jehoahaz followed in the kingdom, and " turned to 
work wickedness," and in three months the desola- 
tion began. The king of Egypt invaded and con- 
quered the land, and carried him away captive, and 
put Jehoiakim in his place. He also wrought wicked- 
ness, and Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon invaded his king- 
dom, and subjected him to tribute. After three years, 
on Jehoiakim's refusal to pay the tribute, the Chal- 
deans again invaded the land, and oppressed the peo- 
ple, in the midst of which he died, and Jehoiachin took 
the throne ; and in the third month Nebuchadnezzar 
came again,, and carried the royal family, and mighty 
men, and skilled artisans to Babylon, and put Zede- 
kiah on the throne as his own vassal. The prophet 
Ezekiel now lived, and was also carried captive with 

^ 2 Kings xxi. 13. ^ 2 Kings xxii., xxiii. 

11 



162 HUMANITY AWAITING REDEMPTION. 

the chief men. In the ninth year of his reign Zede- 
kiah rebelled, and Nebuchadnezzar came back and 
besieged Jerusalem, and after resisting the siege 
three years, and enduring famine and suffering, the 
Jews were forced to surrender, the walls of Jerusa- 
lem were broken down, the temple was burned, 
the holy vessels and costly ornaments of the temple 
plundered and carried to Babylon. The sons of Zede- 
kiah were slain before his eyes, and then his own eyes 
were put out, and he in his blindness was carried a 
prisoner to Babylon. The poor and oppressed people 
left ii;i the land were governed by rulers put over 
them by their conquerors. This captivity had re- 
peatedly been foretold as determined by Jehovah, 
and that its continuance should be for seventy years ; 
and this thorough execution of the desolation is fully 
narrated.! 

Besides the terrible, and in the end effectual, dis- 
cipline of Judah by these calamities, there was the 
throwing of the Jewish influence and knowledge of 
the true faith upon another and wider portion of hu- 
manity. Not Canaan, and Egypt, and Syria, as mainly 
hitherto, but the Assyrian empire over all Eastern 
Asia, was made acquainted with the institutions of 
Jehovah and the practices of his people. Their des- 
olation purified the Jews, and they, in theij recovered 
loyalty to God, taught the nations the promise of his 
coming redemption for the whole lost family of man- 
kind. 

* 2 Kings xxiv., xxv. 



FROM CAPTIVITY TO THE INCARNATION. 163 



SECTION YII. 

PROM THE BABYLONIAN CAPTIVITY TO THE COMING 
OF MESSIAH. 

Henceforth inspired Scripture ceases to direct our 
way in the history of God's dealing with humanity, 
till we come to the New Testament record, save the 
Books of Daniel and Esther, which give some occur- 
rences in Babylon, and those of Ezra and Nehemiah, 
relating to events connected with the restoration 
from captivity. The captivity and experience in 
Babylon did much in fixing the Jews in loyalty to Je- 
hovah, and the preparation for the advent of their 
promised Redeemer. They came out of that furnace 
greatly purified, and ever after abhorred idolatry as 
deeply as before they had been inclined to all pagan 
superstitions. The peculiarities of the Theocratic 
rule and ritual were henceforth less needful, and hav- 
ing mainly accomplished their end, the whole dispen- 
sation was wearing away. The captivity destroyed 
and lost many of their sacred symbols, which at their 
return were never restored. The ark of the covenant, 
with the original copy of the law, the golden pot of 



164 HUMANITY AWAITING EEDEMPTION. 

old manna, and the blossoming almond rod of Aaron, 
which had been laid up before the Lord, were all lost 
with the burning of the first temple; and more than 
all, the Shechina, or visible presence of Jehovah, 
passed away without any return to the second temple. 
The successive removals, to its final departure, are 
strikingly given in the visions of Ezekiel, step by step, 
just preceding the burning of the temple.^ Jehovah's 
perpetual witness of himself in special providences 
also began its decline as less marked and constant, 
and the open entailment of judgments upon the chil- 
dren for the fathers- sins, in civil vindication, were 
prophetically announced as then ceasing.^ 

Still in it3 expiring light the old Theocracy does 
not cease its salutary teachings. Its eve is as impor- 
tant in its lessons to us as its morn or its midday 
splendor. It tells of God's work done by it, and 
marks the passing away of an important day in order 
that the more important scenes of a gospel day may 
open. And as the old passes away, we shall find its 
expiring light and influence thrown out wider and 
further upon the nations. The providence of God 
mingles his people more with mankind, and sets their 
faith and worship out on broader scenes than had be- 
fore been exhibited. The Jews go to Babylon and 
make their impression on the Assyrian empire ; the 
Assyrian is subverted by the Persian, this by the 

* With Ezek. i. confer viii. 4, ix. 3, x. 4, 18, xi. 23, 24. 
^ Ezek. xviii. 2, 3. 



FROM CAPTIVITY TO THE INCARNATION. 165 

Grecian, and then this by the Roman universal mon- 
archies ; and amid them all, the chosen people of Je- 
hovah, and their persistent faith and worship, are kept 
constantly and most prominently conspicuous. These 
great transactions fulfil the divine prediction, " I will 
overturn, overturn, overturn it, and it shall be no 
more, until he cometh whose right it is, and I will 
give it him." ^ " Yet once, it is a little while, and I 
will shake the heavens and the earth, and the sea and 
the dry land ; and I will shake all nations, and the De- 
sire of all nations shall come." ^ Nq such mighty 
overturnings have taken place among the nations 
of the earth as those within the five hundred years 
preceding the advent of Christ, from the beginning 
until now ; and yet this one people mingled in them 
all, shed its light upon them all, and stood unbroken 
through them all, till the Lord and Saviour of all 
came in the flesh and tabernacled with men. 

We shall follow the history from the captivity to 
the advent of Christ, through the great monarchies 
with which the Jews were influentially familiar, and 
the marked epochs occurring in their experience. 

1. The Jews as subject to the Assyrians. — There 
was a first and last invasion of Judea by Nebuchad- 
nezzar, with an interval of eighteen years, and an 
intervening hostile visit, in all of which captive Jews, 
more or less, were taken to Babylon ; and thus the 

» Ezek. xxi. 27. * Hag. ii. 6, 7. 



166 HUMANITY AWAITING REDEMPTION. 

captivity, as one event, filled a period of eighteen 
years. Nebuchadnezzar was sent with an army 
against Egypt, through Palestine, by his father, Nabo- 
polassar ; and in this expedition he took Jerusalem, in 
the fourth year of Jehoiakim, and Daniel and his com- 
panions, with many chief families of the Jews, were 
sent to Babylon.^ In profane history we learn that two 
years thereafter Nabopolassar died, and Nebuchadnez- 
zar hastened back to Babylon to receive the kingdom. 
Jehoiakim soon refused paying tribute, and the 
armies from the subject Assyrian provinces overran 
Judea ; ^ and in these troubles Jehoiakim died. In 
the third month of Jehoiachin, his successor's reign, 
Nebuchadnezzar a second time came, and carried 
away the royal family and many noble Jews back with 
him to Babylon, and made Zedekiah king.^ Zedekiah 
soon rebelled, and Nebuchadnezzar a third time came 
and finished the work of desolation and captivity, and 
put Gedaliah as governor over the poor and miserable 
families which he left in the land,^ This was the 
nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar,^ i. e., from his 
commissioned expedition on his first visit to Jerusa- 
lem, but the seventeenth year from reigning alone.^ 

The beginning of the captivity we thus put at the 
fourth year of Jehoiakim, and first of Nebuchadnez- 
zar's royal commission, and which was the year 
606 B.C. 



^ 2 Kings xxiv. 1 ; Dan. i. 1-7. ' ^ 2 Kings xxiv. 2. 

^ 2 Kings xxiv. 8-17. * 2 Kings xxv. ; Jer. xxix. 

^ 2 Kings xxv. 8. ^ Prideaux, B.I. 



FROM CAPTIVITY TO THE INCARNATION. 167 

The Jews were then in Babylon under Assyrian 
monarchs, as foUows : — 

Years. Months. 

Nebuchadnezzar's reign, .44' — 

Evil-merodach's reign, 2 — 

Nerriglissor's reign, 4 — 

Laborosoarchod's reign, 9 

Nabonadius, or Belshazzar's reign, . . 17 — 

Making in all, 67 9 

During this period we may note the following oc- 
currences and influences : — 

« 

Gedahah, left by Nebuchadnezzar, at his first inva- 
sion of Judea, as governor, was mild and kind, and 
the dispersed families in the land gathered themselves 
readily under his rule ; but within seven months he 
was treacherously slain by Ishmael, with all his at- 
tendants. Johanan then drove Ishmael away to the 
Ammonites, and he, with the remnant of Jews, re- 
moved to the southern border of Palestine, near to 
Egypt, in fear of the revenge which the Chaldeans 
might take for IshmaePs treachery and assassination. 
Jeremiah the prophet was with them, and when they 
inquired of him if they should pass over into Egypt, 
he, from the Lord, forbade such purpose. In defiance 
of this, they determined to go, and soon relapsed into 
the old Egyptian superstition, and worshipped the 
queen of heaven, joining in sacrifices to Isis. Jere- 
miah here denounced the exterminating judgment of 
the future coming of the king of Babylon,^ 



Jer. xl. to xliv. 



168 HUMANITY AWAITING REDEMPTION. 

Those Jews who had been carried to Babylon were 
kindly treated, and Daniel was in high estimation, and 
raised to eminent civil authority ; and when Evil- 
merodach took the kingdom, he freed Jehoiachin, and 
gave him royal support in his own palace.^ During 
Nebuchadnezzar's reign his interpretation of the 
king's dreams, the deliverance of his three friends 
from the burning furnace, and the madness which, 
according to Daniel's prediction, came upon the king, 
when they drove him from the presence of men to be 
with the beasts,^ — all this powerfully affected the 
Assyrian empire, and seems to have made Nebuchad- 
nezzar, on his recovery, a humble worshipper of the 
true Jehovah.3 The steadfast refusal of Shadrach, 
Meshech, and Abednego to bow to the king's golden 
image evinces how soon and strong the captivity had 
served to dissuade the Jews from idolatry. Their 
own sadness, while they wept by the rivers of Baby- 
lon, and hanged their harps on the willows, and the 
sympathy of their captors, who asked them to sing 
their songs of Zion,* all manifest how effectually God's 
dealings with them were working out his own coun- 
sels. The seventy years' duration of the captivity 
set by the prophet ^ was drawing near its close, and 
in the way of the destined deliverance, the Assyrian 
dynasty was overthrown by that of the Medes and 
Persians. 

* 2 Kings XXV. 27. ^ Dan. iii. and iv. ' Dan. iv. 34-37. 

* Psalm cxxxvii. * Jer. xxv. 11, xxix. 10. 



FROM CAPTIYITY TO THE INCARNATION. 169 

2. The Jews as subject to the Persians. — The 
last of the .Assyrian monarchs was Belshazzar, an 
effeminate ruler, who, while Cyrus was besieging him 
in his capital, gave himself up to pleasure. At a 
voluptuous feast, in contempt of Jehovah, he ordered 
the sacred vessels of the Jerusalem temple to be 
used in his drunken revelry. The dread prodigy of a 
supernatural hand appeared writing on the wall, and 
left the ominous characters there legible. Daniel in- 
terpreted them plainly, and the interpretation was im- 
mediately fulfilled, in that the besiegers took the city 
that very night, slew Belshazzar, and Darius the 
Median took the kingdom.^ Cyrus was the general 
who had taken Babylon, and while the power was in 
his hands, be left Darius, who was his uncle, and 
known as Cyaxares, to rule at Babylon, while he pros- 
ecuted his designs of further conquest. Darius died 
after about two years, when Cyrus took the king- 
dom in his own name. The Persian monarchy may 
be noted as beginning in the year 538 B. C. 



Darius reigned 2 years. 

Cyrus 

Cambyses, or Ahasuerus of Ezra iv. 6 . . . . 
Smerdis, or Artaxerxes of Ezra iv. 7 .... 

Darius Hystaspes 

Xerxes the Great 

Artaxerxes Longimanus, or Ahasuerus of Esther, 
Xerxes II., known as Sogdianus, 

^ Dan. V. 31. 





7 ' 




7 ' 




1 ♦ 




36 ' 




21 ' 




40 ' 




1 ' 



170 HUMANITY AWAITING REDEMPTION. 

Darius Nothus . reigned 19 years. 

Artaxerxes Mnemon " 46 " 

Darius Ochus " 21 " 

Darius Arses " 2 " 

Darius Codomanus ... * " 4 " 

In all 207 " 

With this new race of kings at Babylon, God at 
once began the exhibitions of his power in favor of 
his own chosen people. Daniel was elevated to great 
favor and power, for, as Darius divided his new king- 
dom into one hundred and twenty provinces, with 
their rulers, he put over these three presidents, the 
first of which presidencies was given to Daniel. He 
was envied and hated by the other officers, who con- 
spired for his downfall. They knew his discretion and 
probity, and despaired of success in their cabal ex- 
cept through some intrigue in the matter of his reli- 
gion. They artfully procured a decree, unalterable 
in law by any authority, prohibiting any petition to 
any god or man, save to the king, for thirty days. 
Daniel knew the decree, and the penalty of being 
cast into the den of lions ; but he opened his window 
three times a day towards Jerusalem, and prayed to 
Jehovah aloud as beforetimes. The issue came, and 
for a whole night he lay in the lions' den ; and when 
the anxious king called to him in the morning, he an- 
swered that his God, Jehovah, had shut the lions' 
mouths, and he was safe. Joyfully the king received 
and honored him, but put his accusers at once in his 
place with the lions, who immediately devoured them. 



FROM CAPTIVITY TO THE INCARNATION. 171 

Daniel, and his people, and his religion, were now 
respected.! 

The seventy years from Nebuchadnezzar's first car- 
rying the Jews captive to Babylon terminated in the 
first year of Cyrus. Daniel had consulted the pro- 
phetic books and found the time, and prayed and con- 
fessed to Jehovah, and had been answered in refer- 
ence to the time the Jews should be restored, and 
also the time that the promised Saviour should come 
for the world's redemption.^ Among the books con- 
sulted, and which must have been laid before Cyrus 
by David, was the remarkable prediction in Isaiah,^ 
in connection with the majesty and sublimity of the de- 
scription of Jehovah's unity and power. That it was 
this which impressed and moved Cyrus to restore the 
Jews, is quite manifest from the decree he made to 
this end.^ The leaders in the execution of this decree 
of Cyrus were Zerubbabel, the grandson of Jehoiakim, 
called in Babylon Sheshbazzar, and Joshua, grandson 
of the high priest Seraiah, who, with king Jehoia- 
kim, had been among the first captives. These two 
leaders, with about fifty thousand Jews, went up from 
Babylon to Judea, with horses, and camels, and ves- 
sels of the temple, and much treasure, to build up 
their own houses, and their fathers' cities, and the 
walls and temple at Jerusalem.^ The Samaritans de- 
sired to assist, but they were not Jews, and their offer 
was unacceptable. 

^ Dan. vi. *^ Dan. ix. ^ Isa. xliv. 28, xlv. 

* Given in Ezra i. 1-4. * Ezra i. to ill. 



172 HUMANITY AWAITING REDEMPTION. 

On this account their real enmity in heart disclosed 
itself, and they immediately and persistently opposed 
the undertaking. They hindered as they could all 
through the reign of Cyrus ; they wrote accusing let- 
ters of the Jews to his successor, Ahasuerus ; and 
especially to Artaxerxes Smerdis, and finally from him 
attained a command to make the Jews stop building, 
and they forced the Jews to cease from their work to 
the time of Darius Hystaspes.^ Here was the same 
intervening number of years in the whole period of 
restoration, viz., eighteen years, that there had been 
between the first and last carrying into captivity. So 
that, from the beginning of captivity to beginning of 
restoration was seventy years, and from the finishing 
of captivity till the full return was seventy years, and 
from the beginning to the completion of each event 
of captivity and restoration was a period of eighteen 
years. This full restoration was in the second year 
of Darius's reign, whose decree confirmed that of Cy- 
rus, and annulled all intervening hindering authorities.^ 
After two years' earnest labor, the second temple 
was finished and dedicated on the feast of the Pass- 
over, with great solemnity and national thanksgiving ; 
and Darius befriended the Jews through his long reign. 
He was followed by Xerxes the Great, whose famous 
Grecian expedition and warlike enterprises absorbed 
his attention, leaving Judea to its own way. 

Artaxerxes Longimanus followed in a long reign of 

* Ezra iv. ^ Ezra vi. 



FROM CAPTIVITY TJ THE INCARNATION. 173 

forty years. He is the Ahasuerus of the Book of 
Esther, and the occurrences in the life of this Jewish 
queen, the circumvention of Haman's design to extir- 
pate the whole Jewish people through the realm by 
Esther's foster-father Mordecai, with the execution of 
Haman, and the Jews' complete deliverance, took 
place early in his reign. The temple service and 
general Jewish ordinances had now been restored and 
regularly observed in Judea for fifty-eight years, but 
the walls of the city were yet unfinished, and many 
disorders were introduced and tolerated. In the 
seventh year of this king, Ezra, who was a scribe and 
direct descendant from Aaron, and of great repute 
and influence, was sent with a royal commission to re- 
dress all disorders, and complete and establish the 
work of Jewish polity and prosperity. By him the 
canon of Jewish Scripture was collected and settled, 
the ceremonial services orderly arranged, and espe- 
cially the great disorder from foreign marriages was 
thoroughly corrected.^ 

Again, in the twentieth year of this king, Nehe- 
miah, his captain, who was a Jew, heard of the still 
incomplete restoration and settlement of all matters 
at Jerusalem, and, at his request, the king gave him 
permission to go up to Judea and see what was its 
condition, and appointed him governor, with full au- 
thority to regulate all matters. He came and private- 
ly surveyed the still desolate breaches which had not 
been repaired, and set himself at once to rousing the 

* Ezra vii. to x. 



174 HUMANITY AWAITING EEDEMPTION. 

nation to their duty. He set the work of rebuilding 
immediately forward, resisted and overcame all the 
machinations of the old Samaritan opposers, finished 
the walls; redressed the oppressions of the strong 
over the poor, and in twelve years mainly accomplished 
his work, and returned to the king at Babylon. Short- 
ly again he came back with new authority, redressed 
the Sabbath violations that had been introduced, and 
put the government and people in an orderly and 
prosperous condition.^ 
' As the law had been found by Ezra, and read before 
the people, so out of this now began the practice 
of regularly reading it in smaller assemblies on the 
Sabbath; and thus was introduced the long-continued 
habit of synagogue worship, which was everywhere 
common among Jews in the time of Christ and his 
apostles. After Nehemiah, the province of Syria 
included Judea, and the Persian government of it 
was through the high priest, and thus the sacred oflSce 
became much secularized and corrupted. It so re- 
mained for eighty years, till Alexander the Great con- 
quered Persia. 

3. The Jews as subject to Alexander and his 
Successors. — The empire of the world, attained by 
the conquests of Alexander, was at his death divided 
into four sovereignties, under four of his distinguished 
generals — Cassander over Macedon and Greece ; Ly- 
simachus over Thrace and the countries bordering 

^ Neh. throughout. 



FROM CAPTIVITY TO THE INCARNATION. 175 

the Hellespont on the west and the Bosphorns on the 
east ; Ptolemy over Egypt and Palestine ; and Seleu- 
cus over Babylon and Syria. The Jews were im- 
mediately involved in the transactions of the two 
latter em'pires only. The conflicting interests and 
consequent contentions of these two made Judea, 
standing between them, the frequent battle-ground 
of their hostile armies. For several of the earlier 
reigns, Judea was directly subject to Egypt, and 
later in this period it was made a province of Syria, 
while for the whole time the Jews shared in the 
commotions of both, till their more independent state 
under the Maccabean heroes. 

This period begins in the year 331 B. C. 

Alexander, 8 years. 

Egyptian, Ptolemy Lagus, . . 

" Ptolemy Philadelphus, 

" Ptolemy Euergetes, . 

" Ptolemy Philopator, . 

" Ptolemy Epiphanes, . 



. 39 


(( 


. 38 


ii 


. 25 


11 


. 17 


a 


. 19 


u 


. 146 




. 11 


(( 


. 8 


u 



All Egyptian period, 146 

Syrian. Seleucus Philopator, . 
" Antiochus Epiphanes, . 

Whole period, . .• 165 " 

While in his conquests, Alexander the Great was 
besieging Tyre, he sent into the neighboring coun- 
tries of Samaria and Judea, demanding supplies; but 



176 humanity' awaiting redemption. 

the Jews were subject to Persia, then ruled by Darius 
Codomanus, and fearing his displeasure, they refused 
the demand of Alexander. Immediately upon his con- 
quest of Tyre, and offended by this refusal, Alexander 
marched with his army to Jerusalem, intending severe 
punishment for this Jewish slight. Jaddua, the Jew- 
ish high priest, met him on his coming, clothed with 
the holy vestments of his divine oflSce, whom Alexan- 
der immediately received and saluted with profound- 
est veneration, saying that this very personage had 
appeared in a dream to him long before in Macedonia, 
and given him intimations and directions about his 
intended expedition, and that the deity of whom he 
was the priest must have inspired and directed his 
whole journey. Jaddua read to him the prophecy of 
Daniel,^ concerning the destruction of Persia by a 
Grecian king, and applied the prophecy to Alexander 
himself, who was so favorably affected that he left 
Jerusalem safe, and conferred on the Jews many 
favors.2 

After Alexander's death at Babylon, and the divis- 
ion of Egypt to Ptolemy, the latter determined to 
possess Judea and the neighboring region, as an inter- 
vening barrier between him and the Syrian empire 
of Seleucus at Babylon. The Jews resisted, and 
closed the gates of Jerusalem against him. Under- 
standing that they would not fight on their Sabbath, 
Ptolemy attacked them on that day, routed them, and 

' Dan. viii. 20, 21. 

'^ Prideaux, anno 333 B. C Stackhouse, Bible Hist. p. 749. 



FROM CAPTIVITY TO THE INCARNATION. 177 

entered the city. The prophet ^ had ere this an- 
nounced that special providences towards the nation 
should cease, and this is the first historic occurrence 
of a divinely undefended Sabbath for the chosen 
people. In this rule of Ptolemy lived Simon the Just, 
the eminent high priest who, the Jews say, completed 
their Scripture canon after Ezra. 

Ptolemy Philadelphus succeeded Soter, and kept 
up the library and literary institutions the latter had 
fostered at Alexandria ; and in his day the Septuagint 
translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek was 
effected, and in this language the learned in all the 
nations of that age could read the history of the 
Hebrew Theocracy, and learn the doctrines and wor- 
ship of the true religion. Philopator succeeded 
Philadelphus, and recovered Jerusalem, which had 
for a season been out of Egyptian control ; he de- 
termined to enter the holy place in the temple spite 
of the protestations and warnings of the priests, and 
on his forcible approach to the holy of holies, he was 
mysteriously seized with a sudden fit of trembling 
and spiritual terror, that he became helpless, and was 
carried out by his attendants. When away, his fear 
subsided, and gave place to rage and cruel persecu- 
tion of the Jews, and preparation for a general 
massacre of the people. He made his elephants drunk 
with wine, that they might in their frenzy trample the 
Jews to death ; but they turned their fury upon his 
own men, and killed multitudes. His fear again re- 

1 Ezek. xviii. 2, 3. 

12 



178 HUMANITY AWAITING REDEMPTION. 

turned, and he witnessed portents and prodigies in 
the sky, which induced the cessation of all Jewish 
persecution, and forced him to favor the nation he 
still hated. 

Ptolemy Epiphanes succeeded Philopator ; and in 
his uineteenth year, when Seleucus Philopator had 
succeeded his father, Antiochus the Great, in Babylon, 
Judea w^as made a province of Syria, and held by 
Seleucus, though Epiphanes reigned in Alexandria 
and Egypt five years longer. Seleucus treated at 
first the Jews kindly ; but becoming satisfied that 
there were rich treasures in the temple, he deter- 
mined on their possession, and sent his treasurer, 
Heliodorus, to rob the temple. On entering the 
temple, the treasurer was frightened by what he 
deemed a vision of angels, and he hastened out 
speechless and nearly senseless, giving up all notion 
of plunder. Antiochus Epiphanes succeeded Seleu- 
cus, and was a cruel persecutor of the Jews. He 
was persistent and unrelenting in applying torture 
and barbarous penalties to force the Jews into idola- 
try. But the superstitions to which the nation had 
before been so prone, had now become their abomi- 
nation. They endured death in any form rather than 
sacrifice to an idol.^ This persecution and oppression 
of Antiochus Epiphanes called out Jewish patriotism, 
piety, and courageous resistance. 

Mattathias, a descendant from a renowned priest, 
Asmoneus, with five sons, began the heroic contest in 

* 2 Mac. vi. 



FROM CAPTIVITY TO THE INCARNATION. 179 

the place where thej exiled themselves in the region 
of Dan, to avoid oppression. Here their tyrant at- 
tacked them, to force them to his idolatrous worship. 
Mattathias boldly stood the fight, and overcame and 
slew the king's messengers, and set himself upon the 
offensive, determined to drive the oppressive idolaters, 
by Jehovah's help, from the land. He fought with 
desperate valor in many battles, usually victorious, 
and died one hundred and forty-six years old, desig- 
nating Judas, his eldest son, to succeed him in lead- 
ing on the opposition. 

4. The Jews under the Maccabees. — The family 
of the Maccabees were called Asmoneans, from their 
eminent ancestor Asmoneus, but the origin of the 
name Maccabee is not so readily ascertained. One 
derives it from a Hebrew word for " cavern," from 
their early hiding-places against their persecutors; 
another from the first Hebrew letters of their adopted 
motto upon their ensign, " Who is like unto thee 
among the gods, Jehovah ! " ^ thus giving the 
spelling Maccabi. Antiochus continued his spite 
against the Jews and contempt for their religion 
after the death of Mattathias ; he profaned the temple, 
entering the holy place and sacrificing swine's flesh 
on the great altar of burnt-ofPerings, and filled the 
temple with idols, devoting it to the worship of 
Jupiter Olympus ; he forced the people to idolatry, 
or tortured them with every cruelty, and suppressed 

» Ex. XV. 11. 



180 HUMANITY AWAITING REDEMPTION. 

all outward worship of Jehovah through the land. 
The sons of Mattathias resisted these edicts and efforts 
strenuously and boldly, and aroused and led on the 
people to the most courageous conflicts and signal 
victories. 

166 B. C. 

Judas Maccabeus, 8 years. 

Jonathan " 14 " 

Simon " 8 " 

John Hyrcanus, 29 " 

Aristobulus I., . 1 '< 

Alexander Janneus 27 " 

Alexandra, queen, ....... 9 " 

Aristobulus IL, 6 " 

In all, 102 " 

These were respectively high priests in their suc- 
cessions, as well as chief captains, except as queen 
-Alexandra had Hyrcanus as high priest. 

Judas Maccabeus, with a brave band of followers, 
went through the country from city to city, demolish- 
ing idols and their altars, and defeating the large 
armies which Antiochus repeatedly sent into Judea, 
under the successive generals, Apollonius, Seron, Ptol- 
emy Macron, Nicanor, Gorgias, and Lysias; over- 
throwing them with great slaughter, and taking large 
booty. He rescued and purified the temple, and re- 
stored its worship and daily ministrations, and gave 
deliverance largely to the nation. Antiochus, greatly 
enraged by these defeats, set out himself from Baby- 



FROM CAPTIVITY TO THE INCARNATION. 181 

Ion with his army, determined to make Judea one 
vast sepulchre. In his haste his chariot was overset, 
his bones broken, and his bruised body became ulcer- 
ated and mortified, and he died after great agony, 
and with spiritual horror at the consciousness of his 
cruelty and wickedness now avenged by deserved 
judgments. 

The idolatrous nations south-east from Judea, Idu- 
means, Ammonites, and Syrian tribes, after this, con- 
federated against the Jews, and Judas went against 
and attacked them, thoroughly routing all their forces. 
The Tyrians and Sidonians, also on the west, put thenc^- 
selves in hostility, against whom his brother Simon 
was sent with three thousand men, and overcame 
them. Antiochus Eupator, succeeding Epiphanes, kept 
up the old contest, and Judas continued his success- 
ful resistance till he was slain in battle, and Jona- 
than, his brother, took the lead after him. He- over- 
threw the Syrian general Bachides, who had been 
sent against him, and kept up for life the successful 
contest. He was at length slain by the treachery of 
Demetrius, who afterwards became king of Syria. 
The brother Simon then led the patriot band of Jew- 
ish warriors, who obtained terms of peace and partial 
independence, and used his authority for the eleva- 
tion of the Jews and the service of Jehovah. His 
son-in-law, through some secret spite, invited Simon 
and two of his sons, Judas and Mattathias, to an 
entertainment, and treacherously assassinated them. 
After this, Hyrcanus, the son of Simon, became high 



182 HUMANITY AWAITING BEDEMPTION. 

priest and ruler, as the Maccabean brothers had passed 
away. Early in their rule, or perhaps even in the days 
of Mattathias, a Jewish court had been instituted, con- 
sisting of seventy of the most dignity and veneration 
among the aged, and which became the great council 
of the nation, known as the Jewish Sanhedrim, and 
which was perpetuated till the destruction of Jerusa- 
lem by the Romans. The different sects of Pharisees 
and Sadducees were now being formed under the 
discussions growing out of the reviving of the study 
of the Hebrew law and ritual, the Pharisees being 
strict constructionists of the letter of the law, and the 
Sadducees giving a wider and more liberal interpreta- 
tion. They became strongly opposing parties, and 
struggled hard for leading influence and power in 
the government. 

Hyrcanus at first paid tribute to Syria, but at length 
attained deliverance and independent authority. He 
conquered their old enemies, the Samaritans, and de- 
stroyed the temple Sanballat had built on Mount 
Gerizim; subdued the Idumeans, and so proselyted 
them to the Jewish faith that they became incorpo- 
rated with the nation. He further made alliance with 
the Romans, whose power was beginning to be felt 
in the politics of the great nations of the world. He 
found the Pharisees jealous and reproachful towards 
him, and he gave in his adhesion fully to the Saddu- 
cees, and took that sect under government patronage. 
He died in peace, and Aristobulus, who was high 
priest, took the government, and was the first As- 



FROM CAPTIVITY TO THE INCARNATION. 183 

monean who assumed the title of king of Judea. 
He was a very cruel, wicked, desperate ruler, im- 
prisoning and starving to death his mother, and slay- 
ing his brothers, and in one year dying in horror of 
conscience under awakened conviction of his crimes. 
Alexander Janneus followed in a stormy reign of many 
years, and kept Judea in perpetual foreign or civil 
commotions. He was often in conflict with his own 
subjects, besides his wars with foreign enemies, and 
with varied fortunes and often cruelties, he finished 
his reign and life by diseases his intemperance and 
prodigality had induced, without having benefited 
his country by his ceaseless struggles. He gave his 
wife counsel on his dying bed to make friends of the 
Pharisees, and she thus succeeded to the throne, and 
made Hyrcanus high priest. She, with the Pharisees 
so coming into power, persecuted the Sadducees with 
great vindictiveness. At her death there was fierce 
contention between the high priest Hyrcanus and his 
brother Aristobulus for the ascendency. Aristobulus 
was at first successful, and obliged Hyrcanus to abdi- 
cate his oflSce of high priest in his favor, and he took 
the government. Subsequently, by the assistance of an 
Arabian kiug,- Aretas, Hyrcanus opposed him, and on 
appeal to the Roman Pompey, Aristobulus was de- 
posed, and Hyrcanus took the rule. But Judea was 
no longer independent. * Pompey had conquered it, 
and Hyrcanus reigned only as tributary and subject 
to the Romans. 
After all this mingling of Jewish experience and 



184 HUMANITY AWAITING REDEMPTION. 

influence with the great monarchies, Assyrian, Per- 
sian, and Grecian, following the early Egyptian, 
and all now decayed and subverted, the Jews begin 
their connection with the iron dynasty of Rome, the 
most peculiar power the world has known, and most 
peculiarly fitted to bear universal sway when the 
Messiah shall come and set up his spiritual kingdom. 
An Asmonean prince is on the throne of Judea, but 
only nominally a king, for his power is all from Rome, 
and he only a Roman vassal. 

5. The Jews under the Romans. — Pompey, the 
Roman general, took Jerusalem, and put Hyrcanus 
in the government in the year 63 B. C. 

Hyrcanus II. reigns .... 24 years. 
Antigonus, " .... 2 " 

Herod the Great till John came, 32 " 

In all, 68 years, to birth of John Baptist. 

Pompey went into the temple and took note of all 
its treasures, but he took nothing away, and left the 
sacred services to their regular performance. He 
estabhshed Hyrcanus in the high priest's office, and 
committed the . government of Judea to him, but 
subjected him to tribute, and forbade his wearing a 
crown. The conflict between Pompey and Cassar, at 
Rome, occasioned new contentions between Aristo- 
bulus and Hyrcanus at Jerusalem, till Aristobulus's 
death at Rome, by poison, and Caesar's ascendency 
to power, when Caesar again confirmed Hyrcanus in 



FROM CAPTIVITY TO THE INCARNATION. 185 

his sacred office, but put Antipater, an Idumean con- 
vert to Judaism, as procurator in Judea, under the 
counsel of Hyrcanus. Antipater had two sons, Pha- 
sael and Herod, and these he associated in the govern- 
ment with himself, the former at Jerusalem, and the 
latter in Galilee. Herod was ambitious, prompt, and 
bold, and ingratiated himself in the favor of Julius 
Caesar, who added to his power and influence. An 
officer of Hyrcanus, named Malicus, poisoned Antip- 
ater, and Herod slew him in revenge for his father's 
death. 

Marcus Brutus assassinated Julius Caesar, and the,n 
Mark Antony and Caesar Octavianus subdued Bru- 
tus and Cassius, and became arbiters of the Roman 
state. Antony came to Antioch, and while there 
confirmed Phasael and Herod in their authority as te- 
trarchs,and took to Rome fifteen hundred eminent Jew- 
ish citizens as hostages for the quiet of the province. 
Subsequently, on a sedition of turbulent Jews and 
their assault of Herod's retinue, Antony put these 
hostages all to death at Rome. 

Antigonus, a son of Aristobulus, obtained help from 
the Parthians, invaded Judea, and took Jerusalem, 
with Hyrcanus and Phasael, and cut off the ears of 
Hyrcanus, that thus maimed he might be perpetually 
disqualified from the priesthood. Phasael, believing 
his death was determined, took his own life by poison. 
Herod fled to Rome, and informed his patron, Antony, 
of these occurrences in Judea ; and he, with Octavi- 
anus, afterwards Caesar Augustus, espoused Herod's 



186 HUMANITY AWAITING REDEMPTION. 

cause, and gave him an army against Antigonus. With 
these Roman forces Herod returned to Judea, and 
after varied successes and reverses, took Jerusalem, 
which the Roman soldiery plundered against the will 
of Herod, and who bought the soldiers off only by 
giving a large ransom. Antigonus, who had been in 
the high priesthood for two years, was delivered to 
the Romans, and by them put to death ; and with him 
terminated the priesthood and princes of the Asmo- 
nean family. 

Herod was now established in Judea as the sole 
governor, and attained the title of king, but ordina- 
rily known as Herod the Great. He began by put- 
ting down his enemies, among whom were many of 
the Sanhedrim, and other eminent Jews. He made 
Ananel, a man of mean birth, high priest, and then 
deposed him and put the brother of his wife Mari- 
amne, named Aristobulus, in his place. Soon after 
Aristobulus was drowned by Herod's order, from jeal- 
ousy of his influence and favor with the Jewish peo- 
ple. Herod's cruelty increased to the greatest excess, 
dooming his friends, his wife Mariamne, and then his 
children, to death, and in sudden passion executing 
his jealous malignity on any occasional victim. As 
the natural result, his own spirit was perpetually the 
prey to remorse and terrible apprehensions. All this, 
and especially the setting of the Roman eagle over 
one of the gates of the temple, exceedingly exasper- 
ated the Jews against him, whom he soon found it his 
necessary policy to pacify. To do this, and at the 



FROM CAPTIVITY TO THE INCARNATION. 187 

same time gratify his own an^bition, he determined to 
build anew the temple at Jerusalem. This had now 
stood about five hundred years since its rebuild- 
ing by Zerubbabel, on the return from the Babylonian 
captivity, and had become sadly defaced and greatly 
decayed. Two years were given to collecting mate- 
rials, and nine and one half years more in rebuilding 
so far that the daily services could again commence ; 
but the work went on in various additions and embel- 
lishments till his death ; and then still on to the days 
of Christ's ministry, the work was yet continued, and 
the temple still in building.^ Some of the old foun- 
dations of Solomon's temple remained in the second 
rebuilding, so that "the house" was known as the 
same ; ^ and in this third building, the foundations of 
the first, and much of the work of the second, were 
there ; yet was the increase in additions, porches, 
columns, and adornments, so much as to change the 
appearance in proportion and style to a hew building. 
The eyes of the nations were again turned to Judea 
and Jerusalem, and the last uttered voice of prophecy 
was on the eve of fulfilment, " Behold, I will send my 
messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me ; 
and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to 
his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, 
whom ye delight in ; behold, he shall come, saith the 
Lord of Hosts." ^ 

On occasions of Roman peace, the Temple of Janus 
was shut. This had occurred first in the days of* 

1 John ii. 20. •' Hag. ii. 3, 7, 9. ^ j^^j^ ^^^ ^^ 



188 HUMANITY A WAITINGS EEDEMPTION. 

Numa ; again, at the close of the first Punic war ; the 
third, on Cassius's victory over Antony ; the fourth, 
on Cassar's return from the war in Spain ; and now" 
fifth, and for twelve years, in the thirty-third year of 
Herod, as the last, and a prelude to the advent of the 
Prince of Peace. 

6. The Ministry of John the Baptist. — In the 
nature of the case, it is reasonable to anticipate that 
when God, in his providence and ordinances, has 
brought his chosen people to a state of knowledge 
and expectancy prepared for the Saviour's coming, 
and through them prepared also the great nations of 
the world for his advent, he should immediately pre- 
cede that event by a special administration, designed 
to call attention to it as just at hand, and secure di- 
rect and personal readiness to receive him and his 
message. Prophecy had long since indicated that 
such was the divine purpose. Isaiah begins such an- 
nouncement by a most inspiriting message to the Jew- 
ish church : '^ Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and 
cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that 
her iniquity is pardoned ; for she hath received at the 
Lord's hand double for all her sin." The prophet then 
gives a summary of the work and ministry of the 
Messiah's forerunner, under the figure of " the voice 
of one crying in the wilderness," and expresses the 
work to be done by the commission — '^ Prepare ye 
the way of the Lord ; make straight in the desert a 
highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, 



FROM CAPTIVITY TO THE INCARNATION. 189 

and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and 
the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough 
places plain ; and the glory of the Lord shall be re- 
vealed, and all flesh together shall see it, for the 
mouth of the Lord hath spoken it/' ^ John expressly 
applies this prophecy to himself, when the Jews sent 
messengers to him to inquire " who he was." He 
unequivocally answers, " I am the voice of one cry- 
ing in the wilderness." ^ go Malachi announces, '^ Be- 
hold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare 
the way before me." ^ And again, " Behold, I will send 
you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great 
and dreadful day of the Lord ; and he shall turn the 
heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of 
the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite 
the earth with a curse." * This was the prediction 
the Jews interpreted literally, in reference to Elijah's 
second coming ; and so the messengers which the 
Sanhedrim sent to John asked him, *^ Art thou Elijah ? " 
and in answer to their false meaning he replies, '' I am 
not." ^ The paraphrase of Luke (i. 17) gives the true 
interpretation of this prediction : " He (John) shall 
go before him (Messiah) in the spirit and power of 
Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the chil- 
dren, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just ; 
to make ready a people prepared for the Lord." John 
came " in the spirit and power of Elijah " in his manner 

» Isa. xl. 1-5. 

« John i. 22, 23 ; also Matt. iii. 3 ; Mark i. 3 ; Luke iii. 4-6. 

^ Mai. iii. 1. " Mai. iv. 5, 6. » John i. 21. 



190 HUMANITY AWAITING REDEMPTION. 

of life, boldness of reproof, and earnestness of appeal j 
and to see how striking the parallel is, take for Elijah,^ 
and then for John,^ the subjoined references. And then 
we have our Lord's own declaration concerning the ful- 
filment of the prophecy, " If ye will receive it, this is 
Elijah who was to come." ^ And again, his declaration 
that ^' Elijah had already come,'' and the disciples un- 
derstanding it of John the Baptist.* Besides these pro- 
phetic announcements of John as forerunner of Christ, 
there seems to have been a particular personal com- 
mission given to him according to John (i. 33) : " He 
that sent me to baptize with water, the same said to 
me. Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending 
and remaining on him, the same is he who baptizeth 
with the Holy Ghost." Also John iii. 28. 

WJiat was the exact design of John's commission ? — 
1. To apprise his nation that the Messiah was at the 
door, and to insist on their repentance and its fruits 
as demanded to meet his advent. Malachi had said, 
" But who may abide the day of 'his coming? and who 
shall stand when he appeareth?"^ And still further,^ 
" Behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an oven." 
They were on the very eve preceding such a day, and 
while God had for ages been teaching them, and had 
brought them to such a state that the Messiah could 
come and not actually lose his mission in the world, 

' 1 Kings xvii. to xix., xxi. 17-24; 2 Kings ii. 1-11, and his dress, 
i. 8. 2 j^att. iii., xiv. 4; John i. 19-36, iii. 23-36. 

2 Matt. xi. 14. " Matt. xvii. 9-13. 

^ Mai. iii. 2, 3. ^ Mai. iv. 1-6. 



FROM CAPTIVITY TO THE INCARNATION. 191 

yet were there few souls ready and waiting for him. 
A great moral reformation and purification of life were 
essential to save them from finding his advent a curse 
to them. A baptism of the Holy Ghost and of fire 
was coming, and John's mission was to rouse the peo- 
ple to a spiritual apprehension of it. And he very 
largely efi'ected it. "Then went out to him Jerusa- 
lem, and all Judea, and all the region about Jordan, 
confessing their sin." ^ Many of the Pharisees and 
Sadducees came to his baptism ; and the great burden 
of his preaching was, " Repent, for the kingdom of 
heaven is at hand." 

2. To baptize the Messiah himself, and point him 
out as the actual Redeemer of humanity. John not 
only preached repentance to the people, and baptized 
such as manifested their obedience, but he had also 
another end to accomplish — to distinguish who the 
Messiah was, and testify his personal presence to the 
people : " That he should be made manifest to Israel, 
therefore am I come baptizing with water." ^ John, 
though a relative, in the flesh, of the Saviour, had not 
an acquaintance with him, but he had a pre-appointed 
signal that, on his oflBcial administration of baptism to 
him, the Holy Ghost should visibly appear and remain 
upon him.3 At the age of thirty, the Saviour came 
to John to be baptized of him, and the intimation to 
John that he was the Christ, led John to say, " I have 
need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me ? " ^ 

^ Matt. iii. 5-7. » John i. 31. 

^ John i. 31 and 33. ■* Matt. iii. 14. 



192 HUMANITY AWAITING REDEMPTION. 

The Saviour let John know that he did not seek 
the baptism of repentance belonging to John's com- 
mission to the Jewish people, but a baptism that 
rightly consecrated all official sacred investitures, 
and was now to fulfil his part in his entrance upon 
his public Messiahship ; and with such explanation 
John was satisfied. " Then he suffered him." ^ The 
sign of the descending and awhile-abiding form of 
the Holy Ghost was given,^ and then John the Bap- 
tist '^ saw and bare record that this is the Son of 
God ; " and as Jesus walked among them, John again 
points him out, saying, " Behold the Lamb of God ! " ^ 

These two parts filled John's mission, and when 
they were accomplished, his administration ceased. 
He continued his testimony while Christ remained for 
some length of time after his baptism in comparative 
obscurity, and then John was imprisoned, and his 
active mission ended. 

What was the peculiar distinction of John^s Baptism ? 
— The Abrahamic covenant made provision for the 
admission of converts from any Gentile people. Who- 
ever was so received and circumcised came at once 
into all the privileges of a Hebrew of the Hebrews. 
A mode of purification was established in connection 
with the rite of circumcision, and which became a 
formal application of water, and known in the tradi- 
tions of the elders as proselyte baptism. Without 
further consideration of this, it is sufficient to say, 
that John's baptism was quite different from proselyte 

' Matt. iii. 15. ^ Matt. iii. 16, 17. ^ John i. 34-36. 



FROM CAPTIVITY TO THE INCARNATION. 193 

baptism. His work was not bringing converts to 
Judaism, but preparation of Jews for the advent of 
Messiah. The baptisms of the two were as distinct 
as the doctrines and duties they symbolized. 

John's baptism also differed from that which Christ 
instituted. Christian baptism was instituted by him- 
self, and by his authority stood as the sacramental 
sign of admission to his established church ; but John^s 
baptism was before Christ came and the Christian 
church was introduced, and for the end of introducing 
Christ himself Christian baptism was in the name of 
the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost ; but John's baptism' 
left his disciples without hearing that there was any 
Holy Ghost.^ John himself made a great distinction 
between the two baptisms ; one was " unto repent- 
ance," the other unto life, purified " with the Holy 
Ghost and with fire. " ^ Those whom John baptized 
were baptized over again on entering the Christian 
church; as the three thousand Pentecost conv^erts 
were all baptized, though many, and probably most, 
had been baptized by John.^ Christian baptism is 
noticed as baptism, eminently and unequalifiedly ; but 
John's baptism is always qualified as distinctive, as 
" baptism of John," '' baptism of water," '' baptism of 
repentance," &c. And finally, the qualification for 
John's baptism was a practical faith that Christ was 
just coming ; but of Christian baptism the prerequisite 
was a practical faith that he had come, suffered, risen, 

' Acts xix. 2, 3. ^ Matt. iii. 11. 

^ Acts ii. 41, xix. 3, 5. 

13 



194 HUMANITY AWAITING REDEMPTION. 

and ascended. John's disciple stood above the Old 
Testament saint, in that he had added the belief, 
and conduct accordingly, of Christ's immediate com- 
ing ; but Christ's disciples had a faith and conduct 
fastening them to the one known Christ, as already 
revealed in the flesh. In John's day no man had lived 
that w^as greater than he ; but the least in Christ's 
kingdom was greater than John.^ 

With this view of John's oflSce and its administra- 
tion, there needs to be added only a short statement 
of his life and time. Herod had reigned in Judea 
thirty-two years when John the Baptist was born, 
and his reign continued three years longer, covering 
the bloody transaction of slaying the children of 
Bethlehem, in order to the destruction of the infant 
Saviour. In this thirty-second year of Herod, the 
angel Gabriel appeared to Zacharias, a priest minis- 
tering in the temple, of the course of Abia, and told 
him that his hitherto barren wife Elisabeth should 
bear a son, whom he should name John, and who 
should " go before " the coming Lord " in the spirit 
and power of Elias." ^ The history of John's infancy, 
youth, and manhood is not given till his opening min- 
istry at thirty years of age. He must have known 
the destination of his life from his father and mother, 
and have doubtless been directed in training and 
expectation preparatory to it ; but when the time for 
his public ministry came, we have the abrupt an- 
nouncement, " In those days came John the Baptist, 

^ Matt. xi. 11. * Luke i. 5-25. 



FROM CAPTIVITY TO THE INCARNATION. 195 

preaching in the wilderness of Judea." ^ Mark be- 
gins his Gospel with this preaching of the forerunner ; 
but Luke is quite specific in noting the time of its 
occurrence. " In the fifteenth year of the reign of 
Tiberius Cassar, Pontius Pilate being governor of 
Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, Annas 
and Caiaphas being the high priests, the word of 
God came to John, the son of Zacharias, in the 
wilderness." ^ 

In the forty-second year of the reign of Augustus 
Csesar he took Tiberius C^sar into partnership with 
him in the government, and assigned to him th6 
Eoman provinces. John was thirty years of age at 
this fifteenth year of Tiberius, and thus fifteen years 
of age at the beginning of Tiberius' reign, as above, 
and his birth the twenty-seventh year of Augustus, 
which was the thirty-third year of Herod the Great 
in the kingdom at Jerusalem. John was about six 
months the senior of Christ, and Herod died in his 
thirty-fourth year in the kingdom, and thus had just 
time for the slaughter of the children at Bethlehem 
after Christ's birth, before his own death. Valerius 
Gratus^had been made procurator of Judea by Tibe- 
rius, after the death of Augustus, and in his own 
full reign; and this Gratus had deposed Annas 
from the high priest's office, and while Annas was 
yet living had made several successive high priests 
and removed them, and this very fifteenth year of 
Tiberius' reign had at last made Joseph, called Caia- 

^ Matt. iii. 1. 2 ^uke iii. 1, 2. 



196 HUMANITY AWAITING REDEMPTION. 

phas, high priest, while Annas the old high priest still 
lived. Within this year of Caiaphas' appointment to 
the high priest's office, Grratus was himself, recalled to 
Rome, and Pontius Pilate was put in his place in the 
government of Judea, and Herod Antipas was then 
tetrarch of Galilee ; and thus all stood as Luke re- 
lates at John's opening ministry. / 

The reckoning of time from the Christian era com- 
menced in the sixth century, and mistakingly began 
the date four years later than Christ's birth, and so 
this year of John's commencing ministry was accord- 
ing to the vulgar reckoning 26 A. D. About six 
months from its commencement, he baptized the Lord 
Jesus, and in the fulfilment of his dispensation in 
pointing him out as the Messiah already come, he 
must have occupied a much longer time, according to 
Prideaux' reckoning three years ; and others make, 
some two years and some one year. He was then 
cast into prison by Herod Antipas for plainly rebuk- 
ing his adulterous connection with Herodias, the wife 
of his brother Philip. Prideaux makes this imprison- 
ment to have lasted a year, during which time John's 
disciples came to Christ, in doubt about fasting, while 
Christ's disciples did not fast.^ And then, again, 
perhaps desponding at his hard lot, or, as may be, seek- 
ing an opportunity to strengthen his disciples' faith in 
Jesus' Messiahship beyond his own teaching, he sent 
two of them to Jesus to ask if he were " the Saviour 
that was to come, or if they were to expect another." ^ 

> Matt. ix. 14-17. ^ jyj^tt. xi. 2-6. 



FROM CAPTIVITY TO THE INCARNATION. 197 

At the time of their presence, Jesus took occasion to 
work many miracles, and preach the truth plainly to 
the poor suflferers he healed, and then sent his disci- 
ples back to John to tell him what they had seen and 
heard in confirmation that he was the Christ, and to 
assure John of Christ's blessing if he held his confi- 
dence full to the testimony given.^ 

Soon after this, Herodias' daughter danced before 
Herod on a convivial occasion, and so pleased him 
that he promised, with an oath, to give her what she 
should ask. She, instructed by her mother, whose 
harbored spite towards John, for his reproof to Herod 
on her account, had made nothing to be so desirable 
to her as the death of the stern reprover, asked 
Herod to give to her John Baptist's head. By Her- 
od^s order, John was at once execute(i in prison, and 
his head brought to the daughter and mother in a 
charger.2 His disciples took the headless body and 
buried it, and went and told Jesus.^ 

We now finish this chapter of the history of God's 
dealings with mankind, through long ages, to get the 
world ready for the Redeemer to come among men, 
and next open a chapter for the consideration of his 
advent, and establishment of his kingdom, and ful- 
filment of all his purpose and promise in saving 
the lost. 

^ Luke vii. 19-23. ^ j^att. xiv. 10, 11. ^ Matt. xir. 12. 



198 



CHAPTER III. 

THE INCARNATION, WITH THE WORK AND 
DOCTRINE OF REDEMPTION. 

The same person in the Godhead, who has created 
the worlds, and made man upon this earth, when man 
sinned has promised a way of redemption for him, 
and has been working upon the nations of the earth, 
through his chosen people, to prepare the way for 
the coming of -the promised Deliverer ; and now, with 
the preparation made, it is also the same second per- 
son of the Trinity who is to be Redeemer, and come 
and dwell among men, to open the door for the fallen 
to rise again into favor and communion with God. It 
is thus still the dispensation of the Logos that we 
further contemplate through this chapter ; but not as 
tracing successive transactions and occurrences his- 
torically any more, we rather take the records the 
evangelists have given, and from them show who 
the Redeemer is, and what is the redemption he has 
wrought out for humanity. 

What he has already done, in covenant connection 
with Abraham's seed, has put the race in condition 
for his alliance with it more intimately than before. 



THE INCARNATION. 199 

Iniquity and idolatry are still widely prevalent, but 
one nation has been cured of its pagan tendencies, 
and been brought formally to worship the one true 
Jehovah. They have, moreover, thrown so much 
light over the polytheistic world, that the idolatrous 
nations have been obliged to recognize in the Jeho- 
vah of Israel a Deity more powerful and pure than 
any of their patron gods. They have also been made 
to expect, through Hebrew ritual and prophecy, the 
speedy coming of a heavenly Messenger, who shall 
bring with him divine deliverance for sorrowing hu- 
manity. Most of his own covenant people will be 
found still too sensuous to receive him, and faith m 
his salvation will make but slow progress among the 
Gentiles ; but so many hearts have been made open 
for him, that the great Redeemer may now come and 
live among men, and preach his new Gospel of Salva- 
tion to them, and the spiritual truths he shall reveal 
shall not fall on a soil wholly barren. The world's 
salvation will now be more rapidly hastened by his 
coming personally in it, than by any longer delay in 
preparation for him ; " the fulness of time " has thus 
come, and the incarnation of Jehovah is at hand. He 
who made all things, and crowned his work on earth 
with man, is now to be made flesh and dwell with 
men. 



200 eedeemer's advent and doctrine. 



SECTION I. 

THE INCAENATION OF THE LOGOS. 

Speculative Reason can walk alone here just as 
little as in determining the work of creating the 
heavens and the earth. Phenomenal facts must first 
be apprehended, and in them the insight of reason 
must read the traces of God's handiwork ; and equally 
so in redemption ; revealed facts must be the symbols 
in which reason shall read God's spiritual meaning. 
The facts are indeed a dead letter to sense, and all 
logical deductions from sense ; but they have in them 
a living meaning to reason's insight, and which can 
by no possibility be brought into contemplation, ex- 
cept by reason alone. They contain spiritual truth, 
and this must be spiritually discerned, not sensibly 
perceived, nor logically deduced from any sense-per- 
ceptions. Yet while the spiritual eye may read, the 
insight can get no more truth than God has put with- 
in the record ; all this contemplative reason may see, 
and boldly should strive to read all that 'the record 
contains. 

1. The Redeemer is born of a Virgin. — Two 
evangelists only give the specific record of the facts 



THE INCARNATION. 201 

in the Redeemer's incarnation, viz., Matthew ^ and 
Luke.2 John^ states pre-existing truths, and teaches 
fundamental doctrine, beyond any other evangelist, 
about '^ the word made flesh ; " but John records noth- 
ing concerning the birth from a human mother. The 
evangelical Epistles, also, communicate much valuable 
and valid doctrine of the coming of our Lord from 
heaven to earth, but do not say anything descriptive 
of the manner by which the Logos entered into hu- 
manity. We may take these teachings afterwards 
and interpret the historic narrative by them, but the 
first lesson to learn is in these distinct and particular 
records of the abpve two evangelists. There is doubt- 
less more meaning here than the human mind has yet 
recognized ; and all that is here God would have men 
carefully contemplate, and comprehensively appropri- 
ate. He designed here to communicate supernatural 
truths ; and as he has given to man reason competent 
to discern supernatural truth, it cannot be to God's 
honor that any man should deem the sanctity of the 
mysteries forbids an honest and hopeful attempt to 
attain the supernatural communication. The danger 
is twofold ; that some shall sink the whole in bald 
naturalism, or that others shall take the supernatural- 
ism to be too profound for human comprehension. 

The account in Luke has all that Matthew gives, 
and is the more explicit and particular. There is 
here, moreover, the advantage of having the account 
of John the Baptist's foretold birth and mission, paral- 

» Matt. i. 18-25. ^ j^^-^^ j^ 26-80. ^ j^^^ j^ 



202 



lei with the account of the birth and mission of the 
Messiah ; and the comparisons and contrasts in the 
two will greatly help in comprehending the truths 
belonging to the Kedeemer's personality. We thus 
carefully note the record in the Gospel of Luke. 

We have the account concerning John of the angel 
Gabriel appearing to the priest Zacharias in the tem- 
ple, and foretelling, antecedently to his conception, the 
birth of his son, and that he should call his name John ; 
that this son should be the Lord's forerunner, and 
should turn the faith of many in Israel to the Re- 
deemer's advent. Beyond the angel's foresight, what 
was here supernatural was the quickening of Ehsa- 
beth from barreness ; the making of the father dumb 
till the birth occurred, and then healing him, and the 
endowing of the child with unwonted spiritual power 
by the Holy Ghost. But this child, given under such 
supernatural conditions, was a human being only. 
Zacharias was his father, as Elisabeth was his mother; 
and John was a descendant of his parents by ordinary 
generation, just as they and he were natural descend- 
ants from the first man and woman. 

Six months after, the same angel Gabriel appeared 
to the virgin Mary, and foretold the birth of a son from 
her, and that she should call his name Jesus ; that he 
should have an endless kingdom, and be known as 
the Son of the Highest. Mary's conscious virginity 
induced the scrupulous inquiry how such an event 
could be. The answer was direct, and intentionally 
unequivocal and emphatic, that the conception should 



THE INCARNATION. 203 

be miraculous. The living seed should be God's crea- 
tion in a virgin ovarium, and the originated embryo 
should there grow to the birth ; and that " the holy 
thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the 
Son of God.'' In this is the parallelism between 
John's and Jesus' birth, that they are both human 
and born of woman ; and so Jesus is man as truly as 
John. But beyond the parallel, there springs a con- 
trast, for while John is son of Zacharias, Jesus is Son 
of God. 

And here, taking solely the evangelical narrative, 
perhaps it might be said, Adam was created man 
directly by God with no previous parentage, and 
tracing up the genealogy of Jesus to Adam, Luke 
says of Adam, '^ who was the son of God." ^ And 
now Adam, though truly human, was yet no more 
than human : may it not then be accepted that this 
is the whole meaning of the appellation " Son of 
God," and that of Jesus, this alone is true, he is a 
mere man immediately originated from God ? Leaving 
here the narrative to be in other things interpreted as 
it may, in this there is no dispute — that it teaches 
Jesus was man, and originally, as was Adam, immedi- 
ately from God. But from other authentic and in- 
spired sources, we have the clear revelation — 

2. Jesus was born more than human. — Admit 
that Adam and Jesus have their parallel in their 
direct divine origination ; they find also their con- 

^ Luke iii. 38. 



204 redeemer's advent and doctrine. 

trast in that Adam then began while Jesus had pre- 
existence. "The Word was made flesh/' but this 
" Word was in the beginning with God." ^ Of Jesus 
Christ, the apostle Paul declares, " who thought it not 
robbery to be equal with God, took upon himself the 
form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of 
sinful men." 2 ^jj^ it is this contrast precisely which 
the same apostle affirms between Adam and Jesus 
Christ, when he says, " The first man is of the earth, 
earthy ; the second man is the Lord from heaven." ^ 
While, then, it is plain t-hat in this son of Mary we 
have a man in all respects like other men born of 
woman, except that his origin as man was immediately 
from God, as plain, also, is it that in this birth we 
have more than man — even that which did not then 
begin, but pre-existed from all beginning. Unlike any 
other being, in his full personality he is the one only 
living God-man. 

We should presume too much on the cultivation of 
human reason to suppose that in this age the full com- 
prehension of this strictly unique being might be at- 
tained by any man. Even angels desire to look deep- 
er and see more.^ Yet as the ages pass onward, the 
reason of humanity does advance in philosophic and 
theologic comprehension ; and this deep mystery 
of godliness — God manifest in the flesh — is less a 
mystery, though no less in majesty and glory, than it 
was in earlier ages; and some things concerning it 

1 John i. 1-14. 2 Phil. ii. 6, 7. 

3 1 Cor. XV. 47. * 1 Pet. i. 12. 



THE INCARNATION. 205 

are more adequately contemplated by us than they 
were by our fathers. And the more we may know of 
it, through our deep and reverent study, the more 
shall we profit man and please God. 

Physical life propagates itself in sexual generation 
from age to age. In the vegetable, the life is mere 
unconscious instinct, spontaneously working itself out 
in successive flower and fruit from year to year. But 
something can never originate from nothing, and the 
product have more than was in the producer. Plant- 
life can never go over in fructification to the higher 
kingdom of animal life. The irritability of nerve and 
contractibility of muscle must first be, or animal sen- 
sation and locomotion cannot be. Bodily organs may 
be given in less or more varieties, but the organ first 
must be, or sense-perception can have no manifesta- 
tion ; and in sex-propagation, the mere plant-parentage 
can never beget an animal offspring. And so again, 
the animal can never pass into the sphere of the 
human, and use the insight of reason in philosophy, 
morals, and religion, from a mere sentient organism. 
There must be the human body for the human spirit, 
and the mere animal cannot beget the man. Sense 
must be an original superinduction upon plant-hfe, and 
then reason must be superinduced upon aninial sense, 
and the higher life can alone work out the higher 
organism. 

We know this to be reason's truth and reason's 
order, and hence we know it to be nature's necessity ; 
and nowhere was nature ever found to step over this 



206 

order of Absolute Reason in any kingdom of propa- 
gated successions. Any interchange of organic func- 
tion in organic grades is at once known as supernatu- 
ral; and it was as really a miraculous interposition 
whicH made the dumb ass to speak, as it would be to 
make trees walk, or plants hear. The exigency must 
demand the supernatural interposition, and then in 
nature will be given the manifestation. For the work 
of redemption there comes the need that humanity be 
exalted to the divine ; that is, Deity must manifest 
himself in the experiences of humanity, and no sexu- 
ally generated organism can be competent to the 
emergency. Even Adam's body, as he was first cre- 
ated man, would not, as a tabernacle, be fitting for the 
indwelling of Jehovah, and much less any body in 
sexual descent from him after the vitiation of his fall. 
There must here be the Lamb without spot ; a sacri- 
fice for sin which the blood of bulls and goats, and, 
even the offering of a human first-born, cannot be 
made adequately to answer. Wherefore, when the 
divine Redeemer comes, it must be that in honest, 
hearty satisfaction he can say to the Father, '' A body 
hast thou fitted for me." ^ It is not an angel form that 
he may assume, nor angelic experience into which he 
is consciously to enter, but as the seed of Abraham, 
and partaker of flesh and blood, so that between God 
and offending man he may stand as faithful high priest, 
making reconciliation with sovereignty on one side, 
and succoring the tempted on the other.^ Hence, too, 

» Heb. X. 6. 2 Heb. ii. 14-18. 



THE INCARNATION. 207 * 

when the Son is sent forth into the world of humanity, 
he must be " made of a woman^ made under the 
law ; '' 1 and yet not in ordinary generation, as just 
seen, but he must be born of a virgin whom '' the 
power of the Highest has overshadowed." ^ Here 
are the conditions which we may now see can alone 
consistently introduce the divine to participation with 
the human. So existing, the Messiah is truly " Imman- 
UEL — God with us." 

3. The Eedeemer, so being, is still one Being. 
— The tree is one as truly as the stone is one. There 
is a force pervading the stone, which may be termed 
cohesion, or chemical combination, that holds all parts 
together and makes a whole. And in the tree there 
is a profounder bond pervading every part, and the 
one life everywhere grasps root and trunk and branch 
in unity, and makes the many still a single. This tree- 
life put upon mere force gives to us the tree as one, 
in a higher and more comprehensive sense than the 
force of cohesion gives to us the stone as one. 
Through the everywhere diffused life in which the 
parts grow together, we know the tree to be more a 
unit than the stone which has its parts only stuck to- 
gether. And then, again, the animal has not only, as 
the tree, everywhere Hfe diffused through it, but over 
and above life, there is everywhere sensation all-per- 
vading. This one sense holds the animal in higher 
identity than the one life does the plant ; and we 

' Gal. iv. 4. 8 Luj^e j^ 34 35^ 



208 redeemer's advent and doctrine. 

knowthe sense in every member and organ to be the 
same, and making the body one in its one feeling, in a 
profounder meaning than that the tree is one in its 
one life. As life is a deeper bond than force, so sense 
is a more sublimated connective than vitality. And 
then, when reason is put over sense in man, and gives 
him insight of phenomenal principles and laws, and 
enables him to guide his actions by science, taste, and 
conscience, it puts the whole man under self-control, 
and the one will is made regulative of all sense-expe- 
rience. Xhe man is then one in his personality in a 
higher sense than any plant or animal is one. The 
whole anima] sense is taken in, and thoroughly suffused 
by, the supv^rinduced rationality. 

All this opens the light upon the unity 6f Jesus 
Christ's personality. His manhood is one, as with all 
men ; but there is put upon the man the higher con- 
nective of the divine, and the very will and person- 
ality of Jehovah is integrated in the human reason, 
and lifts the man within the comprehensive sphere of 
divine intelligence and action. One divine will and 
consciousness holds sense and human reason in unity, 
and the oneness of the divine Redeemer is as superior 
to that of man, as Absolute Reason transcends the en- 
dowment of human rationality. 

Now, in the Godhead, as Absolute Reason, there is 
the distinct will that plans, and has within itself the 
Ideal ; and the separate will that objectifies, and gives 
Expression; and the still other will, that puts idea 
and object in consistent comprehensiv^e Unity ; and 



THE INCARNATION. 209 

these three wills, in their discrimination, are three 
persons in their own conscious activities, and can be 
recognized in nothing so appropriate as respective 
personalities. And yet are the three not so many 
beings, for the being of all is in the one Absolute 
Reason. And the personality incarnated in the Re- 
deemer is the second, known as Logos, or Word, i. e., 
the expresser, or outward manifester of the unseen 
Ideal. This Word originally was "with God,'^ and 
" was God," and here is " made flesh ; " entering truly 
into humanity. This complexity, as One in Jesus 
Christ the Redeemer, reconciles the many apparent 
paradoxical representations given of him in the Gos- 
pels. Thus, " he came down from heaven," and while 
on earth talking with his disciples he was also "in 
heaven." ^ He says also of himself, " I and my Father 
are one ; " ^ and then again, " My Father is greater 
than I ; " 3 and also, " He that hath seen me hath 
seen the Father."* And so, also, we have the repre- 
sentation, that this assuming of a human body and 
dwelling with men was a humbling condescension, 
involving much personal sacri6ce. " He made him- 
self of no reputation ; " "' he humbled himself, and 
became obedient." ^ " He became poor, that ye 
through his poverty might be rich." ^ His perfection, 
as Redeemer of men, is through suffering.'' There 
must needs be occasion for speaking of the Redeemer 

» John iii. 13. ^ jo^n x. 30. ^ John xiv. 28. 

* John xiv. 9. ^ Phil. ii. 7. « 2 Cor. viii. 9. 

' Heb. ii. 10. 

14 



210 eedeemer's advent and doctrine. 

in all the phases of his complex being, viz., as God in 
Trinity, as man in the flesh, and as both God and man 
in his mediation. It would be impossible to fill out 
his record in redemption without giving more or less 
such paradoxical exhibitions of him. As Redeemer 
of men he is one, and yet not complete in his oneness, 
except as the divine takes up in its unity the animal 
sense and the human spirit, and makes them a unit in 
its absolute unity. This one virgin-birth raised hu- 
manity into the sphere of God-consciousness, and 
brought Deity into the sphere of human experience. 
While in the man-Jesus •' dwelt all the fulness of the 
Godhead bodily," ^ in the Jehovah-Jesus was the sus- 
ceptibiUty to be " touched with the feeling of our in- 
firmities." ^ So incarnated. Deity can be tempted; 
so exalted, humanity can endure any temptation with- 
out sin. 

4. This One Redeemer is in himself Prophet, 
Priest, and King. — Not as offices conferred upon 
him, and into which he has been inaugurated by 
some separate authority, but in his own essence 
such offices already belong to him in the mode of his 
existence. 

He is Prophet in the acceptation that the message 
he brings from above needs not to be first delivered 
to him, but stands already in his own omniscient con- 
sciousness. What Jesus communicates is just what 
God himself is. His truth is the truth in God. His 

^ Col. ii, 9. « Heb. iv. 15. 



THE INCARNATION. 211 

exhibited feeling is God's feeling ; his will is God's 
will. He says of himself, " I do always those things 
that please the Father." ^ And the Father says of 
him, " This is my beloved Sou, in whom I am well 
pleased." ^ His pleasure is God's pleasure, and seen 
through its expression in his life and daily action and 
conversation, we see directly into the heart and pur- 
pose of God. " He that hath seen me hath seen the 
Father." Jesus has Divinit}^ ; he is Deity; and in 
himself he expresses what the Godhead is. 

And so, moreover, he is mediating High Priest, not 
as taking commissioned authority from superior sover-' 
eignty, and delegated representation from assenting 
subjects, and so acting by consent and sufferance of 
parties ; but in what he is he already touches both 
parties, and has within himself the interests both of 
man and God. Essentially he is Mediator between 
the two, and he can no more renounce the wants of 
man than the claims of God. His intercession is hu- 
manity interceding, just as his pardoning and accept- 
ing is the valid justification by God. " I knew that 
thou hearest me always." ^ 

His mediatorial Reign also is his essential preroga- 
tive. To be so born of a virgin gives inheritance to 
the sceptre of humanity. It is a dominion to which 
mere man could not be exalted, and one which, out 
of the flesh, God could not condescend to take. But 
the humbling of himself to be born of woman, and 
become obedient to the death of the cross, makes it 

' John viii. 29. ^ jyj^tt. iii. 17. ^ John xi. 42. 



212 redeemer's advent and doctrine. 

his right to be highly exalted as "King in Zion/' and 
" head over all things to his church." His triumphant 
resurrection gives into his hand the "keys of Hell 
and of Death," and sets him on " the right hand of 
the Throne of Majesty in the Heavens." 

In all these offices he bears, it is in virtue of what 
is essential in him that he determines how to execute 
them. It is his to say what he will reveal as Prophet, 
when he will intercede and when pronounce absolu- 
tion as High Priest, and how legislate, and judge, and 
execute as Mediatorial Sovereign ; and all he so does 
stands forever in the validity of Absolute Authority. 
The Absolute Reason, in redeeming a lost race, re- 
quires a second person for the manifestation of his 
secret plan and counsel, just as in the eternal Ideal 
of created worlds there must be the manifesting will 
that fixes them in objective steadfastness ; and it is 
by the same second Person, as Son, God redeems 
humanity, that it was by whom also in the beginning 
" he made the worlds." ^ 

» Heb. i. 2. 



LIFE AND WORK IN THE FLESH. 213 



SECTION II 

THE EEDEMPTIVE WORK AS WROUGHT IN HUMAN 
FLESH. 

The coming of Christ in the flesh, and so taking 
humanity, was the great redeeming-work of God. 
This has in it all the virtue for salvation that an}^ 
subsequent manifestation can bring out of it, and in 
itself, to the divine comprehension, expresses the 
length and breadth, the height and depth, of the love 
of God ; and has in it, too, all the purpose and promise 
of the first announcement of redemption after the fall, 
when God said of the enmity between the seed of the 
woman and the seed of the serpent, " It shall bruise 
thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." But to 
finite spirits, and especially to human reason, this 
^' mystery of godliness " will not have its hidden 
truth unfolded but through a life-aud-death-experi- 
ence, which shall carry out before them the very 
work of selfsacrifice which is essentially in the 
very incarnation itself. This has already been pre- 
figured as plainly as ritual representations could 
effect it, in the sacrifice of the paschal lamb, and the 
sin-offering of the slain goat, and bearing-a way-iniquity 
of the scape goat ; but though as clearly as humanity 



214 redeemer's advent and doctrine. 

could then receive it, yet how inadequately can ani- 
mal blood, anyhow shed, indicate the depth of abhor- 
rence in God for human sin, and the intense pity in 
God for the human sinner ! These both are fully set 
within the incarnate Word, in the fact of the incarna- 
tion itself, and no further exhibition is about to add 
anything to the essence of this expiation ; but more 
vividly, and more truly, the life and death of Christ 
may show this to men, than has been, or ever can be, 
done by any ceremonial sacrifices. Prophecy had also 
done what it could in setting an incarnate redemption 
in expectancy before men ; but now the life and death 
of Jesus may better manifest to men what God has 
already put into his incarnation ; and his actual ex- 
perience tell the story of his siri-hating and his soul- 
loving redemption, better than any combinations of 
ritual-foreshado wings and prophetic-announcings can 
accomplish. Already in the manger at Bethlehem is 
the essential self sacrifice ; and love to God and man, 
which is to reveal itself more clearly, is not to be 
any more really, in his ministry, or in Gethsemane, or 
on Calvary, than in his being " made of a woman." 

By far the greatest number of years in the life of 
Jesus have little significance in opening the hidden 
meaning of his incarnation, except as the fact of his 
passing through them testifies to his humility in con- 
senting to take " the form of a servant." He grew 
up through his childhood, youth, and into early man- 
hood, as others of the human race, and the manly 
mind developed as the manly stature was matured. 



LIFE AND WORK IN THE FLESH. 215 

There were continual indications, of the supernatural 
portent given in his miraculous conception, shining 
out through this early experience ; and maternal in- 
terest and solicitude made Mary quick to note them, 
and '^ she hid all his sayings in her heart." His con- 
ference with the Sanhedrim at the Temple, in his 
twelfth year, astonished them by the wisdom of his 
questions and answers ; and his answer to the affec- 
tionate rebuke of Mary, that his tarrying behind had 
made for father and mother hours of sorrowing search 
after him, was no less astonishing to his parents — 
^' Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's busi- 
ness?" How surely gleams out here the perpetual 
inner consciousness, even of his childhood, that he 
was " the Word made flesh." Yet during the first 
thirty years of his life, Jesus kept his inner character- 
istics and communings of the human and divine main- 
ly in his own bosom. He went back Eome with his 
parents from that talk with the doctors of the law in 
the Temple, and w^as subject to them, and wrought 
with his father at his daily occupation, and was known 
familiarly as " the carpenter's son." At thirty years 
of age he came to John, at the Jordan, to be baptized 
of him, and was thus formally, and by God's appear- 
ing and audible announcement authoritatively, in- 
augurated into his official Messiahship; and thence 
began the work of his redemption-administration. 

1. The Work opened in a Private Personal Con- 
flict WITH the first Deceiver. — We have the record 



216 redeemer's advent and doctrine. 

in Matt. iv. and Luke iv., and in a short statement by 
Mark i. 13. The significance of the conflict is, that 
there was a triumph of Jesus over the devil at the 
opening of his redemptive work. The first accom- 
plishment was a victory over the flesh and Satan, 
evincing his perfect competency for the work of hu- 
man redemption. The devil knew what his own agen- 
cy and its success had been in the fall of humanity, 
and that in prospect was a redemptive work for man 
purposed and promised by God, and enough had been 
disclosed to make clear indication that Jesus Christ 
was this designed Redeemer. He had confronted Je- 
hovah before as the Logos, or original manifester of 
the Father, and had been expelled from angelic com- 
munion, and Jesus had seen him '^ fall like lightning 
from heaven.'' But now the Word was made flesh, 
and accessible to temptation through sense, and the 
devil promptly seized this first ofi'ered occasion for 
tempting Deity. As Absolute Spirit, '^ God cannot be 
tempted of evil," for no other end can be of so high 
an inducement to action as that of satisfying his own 
reason, or, as the same thing, securing his honor and 
glory. 

On the other hand, Jesus was as promptly intent to 
meet Satan. Immediately after his baptism, he was 
led by the Spirit into the wilderness beyond the Jor- 
dan for this very purpose, ^'to be tempted of the 
devil." He went, manifestly conscious that the scene 
of temptation in the flesh awaited him, and that it was 



LIFE AND WORK IN THE FLESH. 217 

a part of his redemptive work now to be accomplished. 
The devil's temptation was as subtle and artful to- 
wards Jesus as it had been towards Eve. There was 
the craving hunger from long fasting ; and the insin- 
uation was, that notwithstanding forty days' service 
of God in fasting, he was left of the Father to his 
own resources. If he were the Son of God, it was 
the proper time to put out his omnipotence in his owm 
behalf, and make the stone to be bread. Jesus under- 
valued the life sustained by bread to the life which 
was nourished by the word of God. Then the temp- 
tation took the opposite form of rashly trusting the 
Father, and casting himself from the pinnacle of the 
Temple, expecting to be miraculously borne up ; but 
Jesus would not trust the Father, ev^n, irreverently 
and presumptuously. Then all that flesh could enjoy 
was ofiered to induce Jesus to forsake the worship of 
the Father altogether, and do homage to him who held 
the world in his gift ; but to Jesus nothing was so 
pleasing as the worship and service of God only. 

As truly man, Jesus felt the full force of these ap- 
peals to sense, and was as conscious of stimulated ap- 
petite and desire as any man might be ; but as divine, 
though temptable, he was invincible. In his own ex- 
perience, also, he felt the glow of conflict and the 
flush of victory. The conscious dignity of virtue 
satisfied his own approbation and self-respect, like 
other righteous men, when the devil left him and an- 
gels ministered to him. 



218 redeemer's advent and doctrine. 

2. General Outline of Christ's Public Ministry. 
— The grand end was to present his claims to the 
Messiahship, and gain their recognition and obedience 
among men. The Jewish nation were the covenant 
people, and through them the preparation had been 
secured for his coming in the flesh, and it was in 
course that the first application of Messianic truth 
and work should be made to the Jews, and as was ap- 
propriate, directly and immediately to the authorized 
rulers of the nation. Jesus Christ gave the govern- 
ment in official sovereignty the first opportunity, as 
it was their prime obligation, as theocratic niagistrates, 
to acknowledge the coming of their long-promised 
Prince and Saviour. When the rulers rejected his 
claim with scorn and enmity, he turned to the people, 
and directed his ministry to them, and through them 
pushed his claims upon the nation to own their cove- 
nant King and Redeemer. And when still the rulers 
rejected and sought to kill him, notwithstanding the 
wide popularity, his doctrine and work gained, he 
turned specially to teach his disciples personally, and 
the apostles more eminently, to carry on the work of 
evangelization among Jews and Gentiles when he 
should have finished his own mission and gone back 
to the Father. 

These three distinct steps in Jesus' ministry ap- 
pear fully on a careful synopsis of the four evangel- 
ists. Matthew had in view more directly Jewish 
converts to Christ, and Mark and Luke, each in his 
several way, both Jewish and Gentile converts ; but 



LIFE AND WORK IN THE FLESH. 219 

all three had reference to the bearing of Christ's min- 
istry upon Christians and the Christian church, with- 
out any reference to peculiar Jewish privileges and 
obligations. John in his Gospel had specially in view 
the claims of Jesus to the Messiahship everywhere, 
and sought to represent the facts of his life and min- 
istry as best to induce in all men belief in his One 
Salvation.^ In this way it was divinely ordered that 
Christ's own intention in the prosecution of his work 
should be successively and distinctly disclosed. With 
their end in view, the first three evangelists had no 
use to make of the work of Christ, as intended for t,he 
rulers and national authority as such, and they all 
commence Jesus' public ministry with the facts oc- 
curriDg after John's imprisonment; but the evangelist 
John, for his purpose, wants the work of Christ direct- 
ly to the rulers on his first announcement of his Mes- 
siahship, and hence we get many early transactions in 
his ministry the others have entirely passed by, as 
occurring during John the Baptist's life and active 
dispensation. So understood, we must begin to gather 
the facts of Christ's public ministry from the Gospel 
of John. 

Immediately after the temptation, Jesus returned 
from the wilderness beyond, back to John at the Jor- 
dan, where he was still preaching to the multitudes 
and baptizing, and John at once pointed him out as 
the Lamb of God — the Saviour already come. This 
induced two of his disciples to follow Jesus, one of 

' John XX. 30, 31. 



220 redeemer's advent and doctrine. 

whom was Andrew, and he led his brother Peter to 
Christ. Next day Jesus called Philip, who was here 
at the Jordan from the same city, Bethsaida, as An- 
drew and Peter; and Philip induces Nathanael to 
come, whom Christ receives as an Israelite in whom 
is no guile.i With these five disciples Jesus went 
from the valley of the Jordan to Cana of Galilee, 
and wrought his first miracle of changing water 
to wine ; and thence for a few days to Capernaum 
with his mother, when the Passover occurred, and he 
went to Jerusalem, and openly assumed the authority 
of his Messiahship in cleansing the Temple and facing 
the rulers when they questioned his claim. His 
teaching and miracles convinced many at the Passover, 
but the rulers rejected, and Christ made no commit- 
ment of himself to gather them, though he knew 
them.2 Nicodemus, a ruler, here came to Jesus se- 
cretly by night, and Jesus taught him the nature and 
necessity of the new birth; and afterwards he, with 
the five disciples, went out into the country of Judea 
preaching, and his disciples baptizing the converts. 
John the Baptist was then at ^non, away from the 
Jordan, testifying of Christ, and rejoicing with no 
jealousy at Christ's success, though Christ was making 
converts faster than himself.^ 

To give John's ministry full success, and save all 
attempted disturbance by the rulers in provoking 
the envy of John or his disciples, Christ left Judea 
for Galilee, and passing through Samaria, he had his 

^ John i. 15-51. ^ John ii. ' John iii. 



LIFE AND WORK IN THE FLESH. 221 

conversation with the woman at the well, followed by 
the conversion of many Samaritans ; ^ and then com- 
ing to Cana wrought there a second miracle by healing 
the nobleman's son sick at a distance in Capernaum.^ 

Again from Galilee Jesus returned to Jerusalem, 
and set out his claims before the Sanhedrim and ruling 
sect of the Pharisees at a public feast, probably the 
second Passover of his ministry ; cured the impotent 
man at the pool of Bethesda on the Sabbath ; and then 
boldly defended his claim, and sharply rebuked the 
Jews for their unbelief and rejection, and finished the 
part of his ministry that had reference to immedi- 
ate governmental acknowledgment.^ He had referred 
to John Baptist's testimony as a past transaction,* 
evincing that John was now imprisoned ; and here we 
come to the point, when the other evangelists begin 
their account of the Messiah's work after his tempta- 
tion.^ During this last visit to Jerusalem in this part 
of his ministry, Jesus seems to have been alone, and 
the five disciples to have gone to their homes. 

From hence we must make a synopsis from all the 
Evangelists. On going to Galilee he preaches at Naz- 
areth in the synagogue, and supernaturally escapes 
their malice ; ^ and then went to Capernaum as a resi- 
dence for some time, making that a central point for 
many circuits in his Messianic ministry. Here he calls 
back his former disciples, and adds to them others, 

* John iv. 1-43. ^ jghn iv. 43-54. '^ John v. ^ John v. 33-85. 
5 Matt. iv. 12-17; Mark i. 14, 15; Luke iv. 14, 15. 
« Luke iv. 16-30. 



222 eedeemer's advent and doctrine. 

making twelve apostles ; preaches and works miracles 
through all the region, and his open ministry to the 
people commences, and is for a time continued with- 
out further attention to the national rulers, who re- 
jected him utterly, and would have killed him. Multi- 
tudes follow him, and we have the sermon on the 
mount ; ^ John Baptist sending two disciples to him 
from his prison ; ^ teaching, at another time, John's 
disciples why his own disciples do not fast ; ^ aud 
extensively spreading his fame and influence by 
repeated journeys and miracles through all Galilee, 
till on sending out his apostles also to preach his doc- 
trine and work miracles, he hears of the death of 
John Baptist.* 

Jesus has now very much finished his direct work 
to the people, and has his highest measure of public 
attention. Many believe in him as the true Messiah, 
and many more wonder, admire, deem him a great 
prophet, but are not ready to commit themselves to 
him ; while others follow him only from wonder, or 
interest ; and many more, with the scribes and rulers, 
reject, despise, and hate his humbling doctrines and 
spiritual requirements. He has come to his own, 
and his own receiveth him not. Enough has been 
given power to become the sons of God, and be- 
lieve on his name, to constitute a seed to serve 
him, and insure a church against which the gates of 
hell shall not prevail ; but the Jews, as a nation and 

* Matt, v., vi., vii. ^ Luke vii. 19-23. 

3 Matt. ix. 14-17. * Mark vi. 14-30. 



LIFE AND WORK IN THE FLESH. 223 

people, prove themselves degenerate from their cove- 
nant, and must be broken off as dry branches, fruit- 
less and reprobate. Henceforth the grand work of 
Jesus is specially with the disciples and apostles ; to 
confirm their faith, enlighten their piety, teach them 
the way of his suffering death and their coming per- 
secutions, and harden them to the burden and task 
they are to endure when he shall be taken from them. 
From this point onward, this is manifestly the increas- 
ing urgency of his Messianic mission. He withdraws 
more from the public, talks more plainly and tenderly 
with his disciples ; at length leaves Galilee, and goes 
up boldly to Judea to confront his enemies, and warn 
and rebuke them more sharply, and meet the sacrifi- 
cial death appointed, and triumph in it and by it. 

It cannot be shown from any historic data how long 
John's ministry lasted ; how long he was in prison 
before his execution ; nor how long Jesus' public 
ministration continued, and when his crucifixion oc- 
curred. He was baptized by John at about thirty 
years of age, the twenty-sixth year of the common 
Christian era. There were, at least, three intervening 
passovers, and there will have been four if the " feast " 
of John ^ was the paschal feast, and there may have 
been more which Jesus did not attend, and are not 
mentioned, while he was in Galilee ; but several facts 
restrict the furthest computation to the passover of 
A. D. 33 for his death, and while nearly all years 
between A. D. 33 and 28 have their advocates, the 

* John V. L 



224 redeemer's advent and doctrine. 

longest period is more probable than the shortest ; yet 
among recent writers on the topic, the most names 
probably will be found meeting in A. D. 30 for the 
time of our Lord's crucifixion. 

3. The Comprehensive Import of his Teaching. — 
While the first grand requisition for all was the hearty 
reception of himself as the only Saviour, and that the 
soul be wholly trusted to his grace, the manifestation 
and proof of this was to be found in complete new- 
ness of life and godly conversation. The controlling 
principle was the subjection of sense in all cases to 
the rule of the spirit. The old disposition of sense- 
gratification and selfish indulgence must be utterly 
renounced, and the purity and integrity of the spirit 
be the steadfast purpose. This is the burden of long 
discourses, like the sermon on the mount ; of striking- 
parables, like the prodigal son, the sower, and the 
rich man and Lazarus ; and is condensed in innumera- 
ble terse expressions and stringent requisitions. '' A 
man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the 
things he possesseth," for these are not his when 
God taketh away the soul.^ " Life is more than meat, 
and the body than raiment." " Seek first the king- 
dom of God and his righteousness." ^ ''Fear not 
them which kill the body, but are not able to kill 
the soul ; but rather fear him which is able to destroy 
both soul and body in hell." ^ " What shall it profit a 
man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own 

* Luke xii. 13-21. '^ Matt. vi. 24-34. '^ Matt. x. 28. 



LIFE AND WORK IN THE FLESH. 225 

soul ? and what shall a man give in exchange for his 
soul ? " 1 and even more intensely, " If thy foot or 
hand offend thee, cut them off; if thine eye offend 
thee, pluck it out ; better enter into life halt or 
maimed, or with one eye, rather than that the whole 
body be cast into hell, where the worm dieth not, and 
the fire is not quenched." ^ 

4. Jesus' Life and Example were like his Teach- 
ing. — " He came down from heaven not to do his own 
will, but the will of him that sent him ; " ^ and while 
he went about doing good,* ^' ministering to others; 
not others to him,"^ and submitted to the devil's 
temptation as evincing that he is the more ready to 
succor us in our temptations ; and when his horn- 
was come, he steadfastly set his face to Jerusalem 
as *^ straitened till his baptism was accomplished ; " 
there are yet two special instances of the most strik- 
ing magnanimity in holding his flesh to the endur- 
ance of what the spirit claimed in finishing his work 
for us. 

The first is, when his hour has come,^ and he says, 
" Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say ? Fa- 
ther, save me from this hour ; but for this cause came 
I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy name." He was 
here in full view of the terrible experiences of the 
coming three days, and his sentient soul was appalled 
and amazed. What shall I say? YieM to the shrink- 

' Mark viii. 34-38. ^ j^j^rk ix. 43-50. ^ j^]^^ ^^^ 33^ 

* Matt. iv. 23, ix. 35. ^ Matt. xx. 28. ^ John xii. 27, 28. 

15 



226 eedeemer's advent and doctrine. 

ing sense, and cry, Save me from this hour ? But 
that will be to desert the very end of my mission. I 
came from heaven to meet this very crisis. The flesh 
must be held to its endurance, and the fixed resolve 
comes, " Father, glorify thy name ; " and the response, 
as in thunder, was, " I have both glorified it, and will 
glorify it again." 

The second case is the agony in Gethsemane.^ 
The tender scene of the last passover was ended, the 
sacramental supper had been instituted, and the last 
parting hymn sung ; and the Master and disciples go 
over the brook Kedran to the oft-visited garden. 
He knew the malice of Jewish rulers, the treach- 
ery of Judas, the timid love and faith of his disci- 
ples, and that he must meet and bear his burdens 
alone ; and his sensitive nature was overwhelmingly 
distressed and dismayed. The whole weight of in- 
carnate humiliation was concentrated in that hour of 
agony, and he went away alone to give vent to his 
distressed soul in prayer, and the sweat, as drops of 
blood, fell from his body on the ground. " Father, all 
things are possible to thee ; take away this cup from 
me." So sorrowful, even unto death, was he, that he 
repeats the prayer three times, and then the angel 
comes from heaven to strengthen him. The bitter cup 
he was then drinking was not that of the anticipated 
crucifixion, but a present inward grief and anguish. 
Of this very soene it is said in Hebrews,^ " who, in 
the days of his flesh, when he had ofiered up prayers 

* Mark xiv. Luke xxii. • Heb. v. 7. 



LIFE AND WORK IN THE FLESH. 227 

and supplications, with strong crying and tears, unto 
him that was able to save him from death, and was 
heard in that which he feared.'' The agony he 
feared was more than he could sustain with life, and 
yet the unflinching spirit says, " 0, my Father, if 
this cup may not pass from me except I drink it, thy 
will be done." 

5. Jesus rose from the Sepulchre on the Third 
Day. — The preceding agony, the dying on the cross, 
the pale, still corpse in Joseph's tomb, were the last 
manifestations of mediatorial suffering and reproach! 
Henceforth he appears a conqueror in triumph. And 
the manifestations of victory are as necessary to re- 
demption as the bowing of his head in death. He 
must be a reigning as well as an atoning Mediator. 
His resurrection is as important in the ends of the 
incarnation as his flowing blood. As humanity per- 
vaded by deity, he could both lay down his life and 
take it again, and he is declared to be the Son of God 
with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the 
resurrection from the dead.^ 

The evidence of his resurrection is as convincing 
as that of his death; and after his resurrection he 
further taught his disciples about his coming king- 
dom, commissioned the apostles to their work, prom- 
ised the Spirit for which they were to wait at Jeru- 
salem, and then led them to Bethany ; and while his 
hands were lifted in blessing, he was carried up, and 

1 Rom. i. 4. 



228 redeemer's advent and doctrine. 

a cloud intercepted all further sight. Two heavenly 
messengers told the gazing people, " This same Jesus 
shall come in hke manner as ye have seen him go into 
heaven." ^ 

This second coming is more fully spoken of in the 
Epistles and Revelation, as the closing up of the 
mediatorial work. Meantime he is at the right hand 
of power, and the Holy Spirit has authoritative dis- 
pensation in the church on earth.^ 



SECTION III. 



THE DOCTRINE OF REDEMPTION IN THE DIVINE IN- 
CARNATION. 

Eedemption from sin includes deliverance from pe- 
nal consequences, and restoration to divine favor. 
How " the Word made flesh " avails to this can be 
made intelligible only in view of the relation in which 
the sinner stands to God. On the creation of man as 
sense and spirit, it behooved God at once to put him 
under appropriate conditions for trial, and such form 
of trial we have already sufficientl}^ considered. The 
test given was a law imposed, and the wilful departure 
from the test was an overt violation of law, and put 

* Luke xxiv. ; Acts i. 

* Luke xxiv. 49; John xiv. 16, 17, xvi. 7-U; Acts i. 8, ii. 2-4. 



DOCTRINES OF REDEMPTION. 229 

the authority and honor of God directly in the way 
of the man's peaceful communion with God. As Law- 
giver and law-violator, there was conflict between 
them. And in this light we attain the true meaning 
of the strong phraseology, which divine revelation 
uses to set forth the disagreement between God and 
fallen man. On the part of man, there is represented 
to be hatred, scorn, enmity ; and on the part of God, 
wrath, fury, vengeance. And yet on man's part the 
hatred is from forbidden gratification, and not because 
there is anything in God obnoxious to the sinner's 
reason and conscience ; and on the part of God, the' 
wrath is the deep disapprobation of sin, and not any 
exclusion of tender compassion for the sinner. The 
sinner hates while he still justifies God, and God pun- 
ishes while he still pities the guilty. 

Standing face to face with such feeling, as God and 
man did after the fall, all peaceful communion was im- 
possible. If the sinner continue a rebelHon which he 
cannot justify, as left to himself he will, the compas- 
sion of God cannot be allowed to repress his vindica- 
tion of authority by applying penalty. Even while 
he pities, he must execute the legal sanction. Both 
self-reproach and open dishonor must come from a 
compassion that overrides reason. And so also, if 
God, self-moved, arrange a way for remission, he must 
both uphold his own honor and require returning 
loyalty from the pardoned. A sinner could not be at 
peace with himself, nor have respect for God, if his 
pardon was against his reasqp. If such provision be 



230 redeemer's advent and doctrine. 

wholly impracticable^ then must all reconciliation be 
utterly impossible ; and very probable is it, that to all 
finite spirits such a way of deliverance must have 
seemed .impossible, and thus the sinner's condemna- 
tion irremediable. Only when God has opened the 
way will finite reason come to comprehend it. And 
this way is opened through the incarnation, life, and 
death of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is known as Re- 
demption in that it is a price equivalent to the penal 
claim, and opens deliverance from bondage ; ^ yet the 
captive must come out cordially confiding, or the re- 
deeming price is not available for him. It is also 
known as Atonement, in that it covers guilt, and ap- 
peases offence,^ and thus opens reconciliation ; yet 
the sinner must penitently take the atoning offering, 
or the expiation cannot cover his iniquities.^ 

Redemption and Atonement, thus, both mean the 
same thing, and differ only as the direction of view 
changes the aspect. How, then, through " the Word 
made flesh," is the price of redemption paid, or tHe 
expiation of an atonement effected ? 

1. Not in any Way of Legal Justice. — The sinner 
is condemned by law, and cannot in any way be saved 
by law. He can never stand reconciled to God, in 
either his own or others' estimation, on any legal foot- 
ing. No one can do anything that can give peace 
between the sinner and God in the eye of law. Legal 
justice must ever stand in this attitude to man, — 

^ 1 Peter i. 18, 19. '^ Rom. v. 10, 11. ^ Heb. x. 14. 



DOCTRINES OF REDEMPTION. 231 

** Give to law sinless obedience, and I approve ; give 
sinful disobedience, and I condemn," — and once hav- 
ing fallen in sin, there is in the case itself guilt which 
justice can never cleanse. Sinless obedience in all else 
is but just what should have been, and this sinful dis- 
obedience is just what should not have been ; and the 
former can make no just amends for the latter. Any 
legal substitution is in the case itself impossible. The 
obedience should have been the sinner's, and not that 
of another ; and for the disobedience of the sinner, the 
just punishment must be his, and not that of any other 
for him. Justice can never permit the innocent legal- 
ly to be punished for the guilty. Even if willing, the 
suffering of another cannot be vicarious penalty ; for 
penal suffering must have conscious demerit, and 
should the innocent suffer with full consent, justice 
could not take that as penal, and legally absolve the 
guilty. In the sight of reason. Absolute or finite, that 
would not be justice. Such remission, if made, could 
not make peace between man and God legally, for 
the reason of both man and God must see a fallacy 
in it. 

It may, however, here be objected, that Scripture 
represents the sinless Saviour as suffering for the 
guilty. Prophetically it was said, " He was wounded 
for our transgressions ; he was bruised for our iniqui- 
ties ; the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and 
with his stripes we are healed." ^ And in the New 
Testament it is said, " He died for our sins."^ Christ 

> Isa. iiii. 6. * 1 Cor. xv. 3. 



232 redeemer's advent and doctrine. 

'' hath once suffered for us, the just for the uujust, that 
he might bring us to God." ^ To this it need only be 
here answered, that Jesus' suffering and death avail 
for our deliverance as an equivalent substitute for 
penalty, and are therefore " for us," but not that these 
sufferings were legal penalty. They could not so be 
unless he were guilty, for penalty can be applied only 
to guilt. 

And then to this it may again be objected, that the 
Scripture representation is, Christ does take our sins. 
" The Lord hath laid upon him the iniquities of us 
all." " He shall bear our iniquities." ^ *^ Who his own 
self bare our sins in his own body on the tree."^ 
"He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no 
sin." ^ To which again, here, it need only be replied, 
that Jesus took our sins in no such sense that he could 
suffer their legal penalty. This must involve penal 
demerit, and could not be transferred from us to him. 
Nor could this be putatively reckoned and voluntarily 
received, for no imputation of our sin could carry 
over their penal demerit. He was " made sin for us " 
in some other sense than made penally guilty for us. 
The reference in all these scriptures is to Jewish sin- 
offerings, and must be interpreted by them. The 
scape-goat bore away the sins of Israel in another ac- 
ceptation than being made penally guilty, and legally 
suffering. If there be no alternative to the sinner 
than a standing on some foot of justice, there can be 

» 1 Peter iii. 18. "^ Isa. liii. 6 and 12. 

3 1 Peter ii. 24. * 2 Cor. v. 21. 



DOCTRINES OF REDEMPTION. 233 

DO redemption for him ; for neither God nor man can 
see any justice in suflPering innocence. 

2. In the Incarnation Penal Justice takes an 
Equivalent. — When man fell, penalty was due for 
sustaining the law in the honor of the lawgiver, and 
not because the penal infliction was what the law- 
giver wanted. He wanted obedience ; and that fail- 
ing, no penal infliction could repair the loss. And 
when penalty is executed, it is not that the sufi'ering 
of the punished may deter others from disobedience 
through fear, for such obedience could not please the 
lawgiver. The end of penalty, threatened or ex- 
ecuted, is to disclose the full will and heart of the 
lawgiver, letting the subject know just how much 
he wishes his law to be fulfifled. There is no justice 
in a penal sanction which looks to any other end. 
The penalty, in this view, presses towards obedience, 
not through fear, but from reverent regard to the will 
of the lawgiver ; and no obedience rendered from any 
other motive can consist with concordant communion 
between the subject and the heart-searching sover- 
eign. When, then, precept is promulgated, and dis- 
closes what the lawgiver wishes, penal sanction must 
also be appended to disclose how much he wishes the 
precept to be obeyed. Precept without sanction is 
not law, but mere counsel; and the penalty which 
gives stringency to law is solely in the end of reveal- 
ing the strength of the lawgiver's wifl, that obedience 
shall follow. The will of God thus disclosed is not, of 



234 

course, merely arbitrary, for it is the will of Absolute 
Reason ; and when there is disobedience, this neces- 
sarily awakens in his heart disapprobation of the sin 
and compassion for the sinner. Absolute Reason can- 
not contemplate the subject ^s sinning without this 
double feeling of displeasure and compassion, for this 
only is reasonable. The strong term, wrath, given to 
divine disapprobation, is always tempered with pity ; 
not the rage of the tiger, but " the wrath of the 
lamb." Penalty is ever threatened and executed by 
God with this spirit. Even judgment without mercy 
is by no means punishment without pity, but punish- 
ment in which compassion can put no reasonable miti- 
gation. Ii becomes savage cruelty when the law- 
giver has not reasonable sadness for sin. 

On the ground of justice, then, when obedience is 
rendered, there is manifested God's approbation, but 
there is no opportunity given for manifested compas- 
sion; and when disobedience is rendered, there is 
manifested God's disapprobation in applied penalty, 
but there is no opening for manifesting the pity which 
God feels. Justice is adequate manifestation of dis- 
pleasure, and that is in the penalty inflicted, and noth- 
ing else ; and this must be, and in it pity may not 
make any change nor abatement. But in the incar- 
nation and death of the Lord Jesus the ground of jus- 
tice is totally given up, and wholly another 'mode of 
manifesting displeasure for sin is introduced. It is 
not Justice at all, but Grace, its directly opposite. 



DOCTRINES OF REDEMPTION. 235 

There is no room here for legal penalty to be exacted ; 
that is excluded, and free favor is introduced. 

But justice is not discarded and recklessly over- 
ridden ; the whole provision has been made in such a 
way of wisdom that justice becomes fully satisfied in 
an equivalent substitute. God's wish for obedience, 
and displeasure for disobedience, are as strongly set 
forth as they could be by inflicted penalty. Jesus' 
interposition is not justice ; it is a free gift, and yet 
as good for firm government as legal penalty. It is 
adequate to sustain law as well as justice, and it may 
•be substituted for just penalty, and authority suffer 
no disrespect in the view of sovereign or subject. It 
is wholly anothei; way of honoring law, but it puts as 
much honor on it as the punishment of the sin could. 
God sets this before the universe, and pardons the 
penitent sinner, and puts the honor and stability of 
his government upon it to stand the issue. When he 
lets a sinner go free for Christ's sake, he knows that 
neither man nor devil can disparage his government 
on that account, and stand justified in their own sight. 
That government is as venerable as if the full penalty 
had been exacted, and with this immense advantage 
to God and man, that it has given occasion for full 
scope to compassion. It is itself the ofi"spring of 
God's compassion, and opens the way for his mercy to 
save every penitent and believing sinner. 

3. The. Word made Flesh has even magnified 
THE Law. — In every view of governmental respect 



236 eedeemer's advent and doctrine. 

and honor there comes out a glory in the incarnation, 
as reflecting upon the majesty of law, which is bright- 
er in revealing how reverential its authority is, than 
any light which can be made to shine from penal jus- 
tice. It was foretold that " the Lord was well pleased 
for his righteousness' sake ; he will magnify the law, 
and make it honorable." ^ What has herein been done 
has made God's regard for his law more manifest, and 
added new honor to it. It appeals to the reason, and 
takes hold on conscience stronger than ever. The 
essence of what is given in the incarnation is self- 
sacrifice on the part of God himself. Nothing of this 
appears in giving law, nor in executing law. God's 
abhorrence of sin is marked in its punishment, but 
the suffering falls upon the guilty ; while in " the 
Word made flesh," the sacrifice is on the part of God. 
Most affectingly it is here shown that God's pity for 
the lost has induced him to severe self-denial for man's 
sake. In the person of the Word, Deity has humbled 
himself to take on humanity, and in the body of Jesus 
to be born of woman. No so great self sacrifice can in 
anything else be conceived. The glory of the God- 
head is relinquished for ministering service in a body 
like the sinner's. And while the essence of divine 
condescension is in this taking on " the likeness of 
sinful flesh " in the sight of the universe, it is made 
to stand out in its most expressive forms. The as- 
sumed humanity begins life in a manger, opens into 
manhood in day-labor and poverty, and in public min- 

' Isa. xlii. 21. 



DOCTRINES OF REDEMPTION. 237 

istration meets perpetual contradiction, reproach, and 
persecution, and terminates this suffering experience 
through the inflicted torture and death of the cross. 

Animal sacrifice was instituted to foreshadow the 
sacrifice of the Lamb of God. But in the merely ani- 
mal death, though strikingly significant, yet obviously 
how inadequate ! If we might elevate the brute- 
sacrifice by putting into it human feeling and will, we 
should at once find greatly intensified expression. 
Take a lamb slain on a Jewish altar, and as the sacri- 
ficial knife enters and opens the vein, let there come 
the recognition that the soul of a dear human friend 
is incarnated in that animal body ; suffering volunta- 
rily all this cruel sacrifice for you ; looking out, in love 
and forgiveness, for some remembered offence, from 
that meek, melting eye, as it is fading away from con- 
sciousness in the dying struggle, and telling to your 
spirit as plainly as the speaking voice could say to 
your ear, " This I do ; this I willingly endure for your 
sake ; " and in that human incarnation what new 
meaning immediately is seen in that fliowing blood ! 
Could you bend over such an applied sacrifice with- 
out emotion too deep for expression? But we go 
infinitely higher when we stand by the cross on Cal- 
vary. The true Deity is in that thirsty, pale, pierced, 
and bleeding man ! He is there on your account ! 
The Eternal Word made flesh is expressing the feel- 
ing of God's inmost heart in every groan and patient 
forgiving look of the Crucified, and telling how he 
pities your guilty state, while he dies to show how 



238 . redeemer's advent and doctrine. 

holy he deems that law to be which you hav<i broken. 
He is suffering, " the just for the unjust, that he may 
bring you to God." " While we were enemies Christ 
died for us." What other possible scene can show so 
strongly how God wishes his law revered, and at the 
same time can say so well how much he wants the 
sinner saved ? 

Could all penal infliction enforce law%o much as the 
death of the Son of God to redeem man from condem- 
nation ? To live in sin in the view of Calvary is 
more incorrigible in its rebellion than to sin on under 
the threatenings of the coming weeping and wailings 
of the lost. If the penalty of law be remitted to the 
guilty for the Saviour's sake, it has had its full equiv- 
alent in the Saviour's sufferings. 

4. The Incarnation has its Equivalent for Piety 
AS WELL AS Penalty. — Penalty does not restore the 
end of the law when broken, as if disobedience and 
legal penalty were as satisfactory to the lawgiver as 
obedience and reward. Penalty is a mean, not an 
end ; and its expediency is in upholding governmental 
honor and authority where the end of government 
has been subverted. The ultimate end of law is the 
loyalty of the subject, which in God's law is piety, as 
this is what God wishes ; and there can be no reason 
in the case why there should be law, as expressive of 
God's will, but in order that his will may be done ; 
and the doing of God's will from regard to his honor 
and authority is piety. When there is, then, disobe- 



DOCTRINES OF REDEMPTION. 239 

dience to law, which is impiety subverting the end 
of law, an equivalent for penalty cannot restore the 
end of law for that disobedience. Penalty itself can- 
not satisfy law ; no more can an equivalent substitute 
for penalty satisfy law ; for the sake of the substitute 
God may remit penalty, but this will not restore the 
lost end of law. There must be an equivalent 
for obedience to the precept, which God wanted and 
the sinning subject did not give ; and this, when 
clearly apprehended, will be seen to be a righteous- 
ness which God may accept, in the place of the 
righteousness which the sinner should have rendered,, 
and which, when applied, will satisfy the end of law. 

This is the very point held in view by the apostle 
to the Romans : ^ " For they, being ignorant of God's 
righteousness, and going about to establish their own 
righteousness, have not submitted themselves to the 
righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the 
law for righteousness to every one that believeth." 
The Jew's " own righteousness " was his attempted 
moral or ritual obedience ; and " God's righteous- 
ness " was what he had established and substituted 
in the place of the righteousness the sinner should 
have rendered. God's righteousness is found in 
Christ, who has attained the end of the law for the 
sinner. 

And specifically how Christ has done this, we have 
in the following scriptures. Prophetically David an- 
nounced it when he presents the coming Messiah as 

^ Rom. X. 3, 4. 



240 redeemer's advent and doctrine. 

saying, '^ Burnt-offering and sin-offering hast thou not 
required. Then said I, Lo, I come ; in the volume of 
the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, 
my God ; yea, thy law is within my heart." ^ This 
is more fully particularized by the apostle in saying 
of Christ, that " being found in fashion as a man, he 
humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, 
even the death of the cross." ^ And again, " Though 
he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the 
things which he suffered, and being made perfect, he 
became the author of eternal salvation unto all them 
that obey him." ^ 

Jesus' " perfection through suffering," includes the 
obedience in all things for the fulfilling of the media- 
torial work, viz., his being made under law ; his trav- 
ail of soul in making an offering for sin; his finishing 
the work God gave to him to do. Not here looking 
to suffering as substitute for penalty, but to obedi- 
ence in the face of such suffering as substitute for 
piety. There is here loyalty which does not shrink 
from taking a human body, and maintains steadfast 
obedience through life, under the temptations of the 
devil, the agony in the garden, and the torture on the 
cross. It is such unflinching loyalty as pleases God, 
and manifests how he loves obedience to his will, and 
which in no other manner could be so affectingly re- 
vealed. If all sinners had been perpetually devoted 
saints, and God had testified his love to it in legal 
reward, this could not have disclosed how much his 

' Psalm xl. 6-8. * p^^ii. ji. s. ^ Heb. v. 8, 9. 



DOCTRINES OF REDEMPTION. 241 

heart is set on having obedience to his will so strik- 
ingly as in this perfect suffering-obedience of the Son 
of God. It is God's expressed love to pious loyalty, 
and in this a righteousness that is the end of the law, 
and which no amount of human obedience can equal. 
There is here " wrought out and brought in everlast- 
ing righteousness," and which can satisfy the end of 
the precept as truly as Jesus' suffering can satisfy the 
end of penalty. But the satisfying obedience is not 
the legal righteousness, any more than the satisfying 
suffering is the legal penalty. The law demanded 
the subject's righteousness or the sinner's death, and 
here we have Jesus' righteousness and Jesus' death. 
What Jesus gave was not what was legally due, but 
it was more than an equivalent for legal piety and 
legal penalty. And so " what the law could not do, 
God's Son, in the likeness of --inful flesh, has done," 
that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled 
in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the 
spirit." 1 

5. Here is opened the new Principle op Obedience 
FROM grateful Love. — All rational creatures have 
occasion for gratitude. Their being is of God's favor, 
and his bounty supplies many things for their welfare 
which they could not claim. It is incumbent upon 
them that they be thankful. But they do not see in 
their favors any self-sacrifice on the part of God. All 
his bounty has flowed free to them at no expense to 

^ Kom. viii, 3, 4. 

16 



242 



him. Life, and rational being, and righteous govern- 
ment, and providential bounty, are given as good be- 
yond all desert ; but God has not been impoverished, 
nor at all exhausted in their supplies. Their grati- 
tude is due, but the full gratitude is an equitable 
return; and with this, justice between giver and re- 
ceiver is equalled. There is no opening to a per- 
petually incumbent grateful love, which is beyond all 
paying. 

But in the redemption provided in " the Word made 
flesh," there is a new claim opened, which the moral 
world could never before recognize. The Deity has 
voluntarily made himself empty of good for man's 
sake. Hv^ has purchased favor for his creatures at 
his own expense. He has laid by his glory, and hum- 
bled himself to servitude, that he might thereby 
minister to his creatures' welfare what could never 
reach them but through his self-denial. " Christ 
pleased not himself; " he subjected himself to re- 
proach from those who had reproached the Father.^ 
" Who, for the joy that was set before him, endured 
the cross, despising the shame." ^ A human suscepti- 
bility is here touched, which otherwise man could not 
have been made conscious was within him. Nowhere 
else does he see his Maker " put to grief" for him, and 
this while he is an enemy. The Deity has manifested 
self-sacrifice that the sinner may be benefited, and 
out of this the " new commandment," for a new form 
of love, has found its occasion to be promulgated.^ 

» Rom. XV. 3. 2 ueb, xii. 2. ^ 1 John ii. 8. 



DOCTRINES OF REDEMPTION. 243 

The requisition is a grateful love to God, and to all 
the children of God for Jesus' sake, because the Word 
made flesh has suffered for them.^ The angels see 
God here in a new light, and must have by it new- 
emotions ; but the debt of grateful love is especially 
for human beings, for it was in human flesh, and 
especially in behalf of humanity, that the wondrous 
sacrifice w^as made. Hence the gospel is so full of 
the claim for love. It is the essential grace, and as 
in the gospel God has shown himself to be love, so 
none can be of the gospel and in the gospel kingdom 
who are not controlled by grateful love to God and ' 
benevolent love to man. By the one fact of the in- 
carnation, there goes out the claim to a new duty 
upon the moral universe to love a self-denying God ; 
and in the case of man, a debt beyond all power of 
cancelling is imposed, of gratitude to God and com- 
passionate regard to all his race for Jesus' sake ; and 
in the case of the saved sinner, a connecting bond is 
made to God, and a fountain of heavenly blessedness' 
is opened in the immortal soul, which no merely just 
spirit can conceive, and in which his perfect right- 
eousness does not qualify him to participate. The 
marriage supper of the Son of God has its wedding- 
garment, which no angel can put on. The Christian 
soul not only loves much, but he loves in a peculiar 
manner, because of the precious blood of Christ's re- 
demption, whereby much has been forgiven him. 

* John XV. 12-14. 



244 redeemer's advent and doctrine. 

6. Redemption is open to all, but the Renewed 
only ^ appropriate it. — In itself, the Redemption 
wrought bj Christ is no more for one than for all 
others, but essentially it is available for all. So much 
as Jesus has done would be necessary that one sin- 
ner should be saved, and no more than he has done 
would be necessary if all were saved. The full 
equivalent for both precept and penalty of law is 
found in the work of the Lord Jesus, and in nothing 
else, and no one of the saved can appropriate a part 
to himself, thereby leaving only so much less for 
others ; but every saved sinner appropriates in his 
own case the full value of the entire redemption-pur" 
chase. The full manifestation of God in human flesh 
is necessary, in order that God may be just in justify- 
ing any believer ; and when never so many have in 
this way been justified, the full manifestation of God 
in Christ's humility is equally available for more, and 
in itself is absolutely exhaustless. 'Hence every- 
where the Scripture representation of the availability 
of Jesus' redemption for all sinners. He is " the Lamb 
of God, which taketh away the sins of the world." ^ 
And moreover, salvation is ofi'ered to all on his ac- 
count, as in the representative of gospel salvation by 
the parable of a Marriage Feast, the messengers were 
required, " As many as ye shall find, bid to the mar- 
riage." ^ 

» John i. 29, vi. 51 ; 2 Cor. v. 15-19 ; 1 Tim. iv. 10 ; Heb. ii. 9 ; 
1 John ii. 2. 
^ Matt. xxii. 9 ; Mark xvi. 15, 16 ; John iii. 16, 17 ; Rev. xxii. 17. 



DOCTRINES OF REDEMPTION. 245 

Still, though thus available for and actually offered 
to all, its individual appropriation can be only on the 
return of the sinner to pious loj^alty. The offer puts 
fully within reach of all that which only the renewed 
disposition will take or can make to be his own. The 
essence of gospel salvation is reconciliation with God ; 
and with all that Jesus has done, peaceful communion 
between man and God can never come while the man 
hates and rebels. And also, on the other hand, what 
Jesus has done has honored the law ; but the honor 
would become dishonor were the rebellious to be taken 
into communion. Redemption would be made self-con- 
tradictory ; honoring God's government by Jesus' obe- 
dience to death on earth, and dishonoring it by fellow- 
ship with incorrigible rebels against it in heaven. The 
gospel message of free salvation to a lost world can 
apply its pardon and justification only to such as re- 
pent and believe. 

And this makes it necessary that we look to the 
individual appropriation of redemption in these two 
aspects : — 

1. Of Pardon. — Pardon is a remission of legal 
penalty. • Gospel pardon is always represented as ap- 
plied to the sinner solely on the ground of Christ's 
atonement. In his self-sacrifice the lawgiver finds an 
equivalent for the sinner's deserved punishment. The 
estimate is that of sacrificial value, and the view is 
that of an altar-scene with a pure victim and flowing 
blood. Christ's self-sacrifice is the expiation for sin. 

But though this be adequate to sustain legal author- 



246 

ity as well as executed penalty would, yet cannot this, 
be while the sinner persists in rebellion. The atoning 
blood of Christ so appropriated would present the in- 
tolerable inconsistency of the sovereign upholding 
law with one hand and pulling it down with the other. 
The offender must confess and forsake his sin, and 
stand loyal to the government, or notwithstanding the 
adequacy of Jesus' sacrifice to sustain law, it may not, 
in the absence of godly sorrow for sin and return to 
loyalty, be put as substitute for his legal punishment. 
The heart of sincere loyalty must be the condition 
for appropriating the substitute, and the consistent 
index of such return to loyalty is the evidence of 
hearty repentance, which is the specific gracious ex- 
ercise always put in the Scriptures as the requisite 
for obtaining pardon. "He that covereth his sins 
shall not prosper ; but whoso confesseth and forsaketh 
them shall find mercy." ^ Repentance has in it an ac- 
knowledgment of guilty demerit, and also that remis- 
sion of penalty is of favor, and alone for the sake of 
Jesus Christ. 

2. Of Justification. — Justification is putting right 
towards law, which pardon as remission of deserved pen- 
alty cannot accomplish. In the sinner's justification 
there is more than an equivalent substitute for legal 
penalty, even an equivalent for the legal obedience the 
sinner should have, but has not, rendered. This is 
found only in Christ's obedience unto death, as he *^ is 

1 Prov. xxviii. 13. So also Isa. Iv. 7; Luke xxiv. 47. 



DOCTRINES OF REDEMPTION. 247 

the end of the law for righteousness." ^ The estimate 
of this equivalent is in the satisfying the precept 
of the law, and not penalty as in pardon ; and hence 
the view is wholly that of judicial inquisition in a legal 
trial, and not of expiation in an altar-scene. 

Literally, justification is a making just ; and person- 
al sinless obedience to law is that which essentially 
makes the subject legally just. But when law has 
been violated, the sinning subject cannot make him- 
self just with that violated precept ; hence, if justi- 
fied, there must be some substitute for that per- 
sonal rectitude in which he has failed. This, as 
above shown, is Christ's obedience unto death, by 
which God's regard for righteousness is as fairly and 
fully manifested, and for which the sinner may be de- 
clared right towards law, as if he himself had obeyed 
the precept. In such case, it is the official declaration of 
the sovereign which makes just ; and this justifying 
declaration justifies itself before the universe, and in 
God's own consciousness, on the ground of the unim- 
peachable equivalency of the substitute. 

But God may not consistently so justify in a state 
of persistent disloyalty. Notwithstanding Christ's 
obedience and adequate righteousness, if the rebel- 
lious subject persist in rebelhon and discard all inter- 
est in Christ's righteousness, God would be unjust to 
himself, to his subjects, and to Jesus in his suffering 
obedience, should he declare one to be right towards 
law who still hated the law himself and the equivalent 

* Kom. x. 4. 



248 redeemer's advent and doctrine. 

substitution on which he must stand. The sinner 
must cordially trust the foundation he takes, or 
he cannot be permitted to stand upon it. Hence 
everywhere the Scriptures put faith as the indispen- 
sable condition of justification. "He is just in justi- 
fying him which believeth in Jesus." ^ And it is in 
" being justified by faith we have peace with God." ^ 
It is the faith which works by love, purifies the heart, 
and overcomes the world, that so unites to Christ as 
to be declared by God right in law on the substitution 
of Christ's righteousness. Neither is Christ's expia- 
tion legal penalty, nor Christ's righteousness that obe- 
dience which the sinner should have rendered, but on 
both sides they are equivalent substitutes appropriat- 
ed on conditions of repentance and faith. 

Justification is, therefore, of grace, for it is in 
Christ's name alone, and the faith which appropriates 
it is through the gracious influences of the Holy Spirit ; 
still the law is left in full force and authority, since 
Christ has magnified and honored it. No sinner is 
justified/or his works ; and yet, as his works indicate 
the measure of his faith, he is justified according to 
his works. 

» Eom. iii. 26. ^ Eom. v. 1. 



MANNER OF THE SPIEIT'S COMING. 249 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE HOLY GHOST SEALS REDEMPTION TO 
MAN. 

The same Third Person who wrought form and con- 
sistency in the physical universe, when the Second 
Person had created the material and ethereal atoms 
according to the eternal ideas in the First Person, must 
now be contemplated as consummating the plan of re- 
demption which the Father has devised and the Son 
has actually exhibited. This Third Person is as essen- 
tial for the consummation of redemption as for the 
completion of creation. The Second Person provides 
full redemption for all, but has not applied it to any ; 
the Third Person takes the true meaning of this pro- 
vision, and so works in the spirit of the lost sinner as 
to renew him in penitence and faith, whereby he is 
" sealed unto the day of redemption." The Son, hav- 
ing " obtained eternal redemption for us," " goes 
away," and then, " sent " of him and the Father, the 
Holy Ghost " comes," and consummates the work in 
the conviction, conversion, and sanctification of men, 
who may then be fully pardoned, and justified, and 
glorified. 



250 DISPENSATION OF THE SPIRIT. 

Such is the depravity indnced by the fall, that, not- 
withstanding all that Christ has done, no sinner will 
become reconciled to God, except by the special work 
of the Holy Spirit. The " going away " of the Son 
to the Father, and the " sending " of the Holy Ghost 
by the Son and the Father, inaugurate the new evan- 
gelical Dispensation of the Spirit, under which apos- 
tles and evangelists are fitted for their mission, and 
converted men are gathered into the church, and the 
church extended to the ends of the earth, until the 
" coming again " of the Messiah, who then accomplish- 
es the last things in the mediatorial kingdom. This 
Dispensation of the Spirit is exclusive of his work in 
physical creation, and inclusive only of his spiritual 
operation in the redemption of humanity. 



SECTION I. 

THE MANNER OF THE SPIRIT'S COMING. 

Antecedent to the incarnation, the Holy Spirit, as 
well as the Son, were each doing the work peculiar to 
his distinctive personality in the Godhead, in the 
moral as well as in the material world. In a similar 
way, and to the same end, the Spirit moved on human 
hearts in the Old Testament dispensation as in the 
New, and all the pious loyalty among men before the 
advent of Christ is to be ascribed to the Spirit's oper- 



MANNER OF THE SPIRIT'S COMING. 251 

ation, as really as the piety in the race since Christ's 
death and resurrection. The Spirit's future coming 
and work were more diflScult for human apprehension 
than even the coming and work of the promised Mes- 
siah ; yet both were revealed in their respective of- 
fices for restoring lost men to Old Testament saints, 
and the more eminent and experienced among them 
recognized, in good measure, the reality and impor- 
tance of the presence of the Holy Ghost. David 
earnestly prayed, " Take not thy Holy Spirit from 
me." ^ And Isaiah represents Moses and his people 
as remembered of God, saying, " Where is he that 
put his Holy Spirit within him ? '' ^ 

1. The Mosaic Ritual prefigured the Spirit's 
Work. — The sacrificial blood was in expiation for 
sin, and prefigured the atoning blood of Christ ; while 
the ceremonial application of water was for purifying 
from sin, and foretokened the cleansing efficacy of the 
Spirit's influence. And this use of water in the He- 
brew ritual is usually connected with the sacrifices, 
and rendered almost as conspicuous as the blood. 

Thus, when Aaron and his sons were consecrated 
to the priesthood, connected with the sacrifices and 
. the sprinkling of blood, they were to be " washed 
with water ; " and the sacrificial ram was to be cut in 
pieces, and " the inwards of him washed ; " and a bra- 
zen laver between the tabernacle of the congregation 
and the altar was to be perpetually supplied with 

1 Psalm li. 11. 2 isa, ixiii. 11. 



252 DISPENSATION OF THE SPIRIT. 

water for the priests' purifying in their daily ministra- 
tions.^ And in a similar manner all the Levites were 
to be cleansed by " sprinkling the water of purifying 
upon them." ^ And so with the sin-offering for defile- 
ment from varied sources ; there were to be kept the 
burnt ashes of a red heifer that must be mingled in 
water, called " the water of separation/' and which 
must be sprinkled upon the unclean for their purify- 
ing.^ And the soldiers returning from war, and the 
spoils taken, were to have " the water of separation " 
applied, and what spoils would not stand purifying by 
fire were to pass through water.* And unclean ves- 
sels were to be " rinsed in water." ^ 

These varied baptisms and purifications were ex- 
tensively observed by the Jews at the coming of 
Christ.6 

2. It was announced in Prophecy. — Ezekiel looked 
forward to the evangelization of Israel, and recog- 
nizes the Holy Spirit as the source of their cleansing, 
and author of a new heart and a new spirit within 
them : " Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, 
and ye shall be clean ; " "a new heart also will I give 
you ; " " and I will put my Spirit within you, and 
cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep 
my judgments and do them." ^ And Jeremiah refers 
in prophecy to the same spiritual cleansing under the 

^ Ex. xxix. 4-17, XXX. 18-21, xl. 12. ^ Num. viii. 7. 

» Lev. xi. 32; Num. xix. 9, 18, 19. " Num. xxxi. 23. 

^ Lev. vi. 28, xv. 12. « Mark vii. 3, 4 ; John ii. 6. 

' Ezek. xxx\ i. 25-29. 



MANNER OF THE SPIRIT'S COMING. 253 

representation of a new covenant : " For behold, the 
days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new 
covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house 
of Judah ; " " this shall be the covenant that I will 
make with the house of Israel in those days, saith 
the Lord : I will put my law in their inward parts, 
and write it on their hearts, and will be their 'God, 
and they shall be my people." ^ And especially Joel 
foretells the coming of the Spirit as securing inspira- 
tion and piety, and which was quoted by Peter as 
then fulfilled when the Holy Ghost came : " It shall 
come to pass afterward that I will pour out my 
Spirit upon all flesh ; " " also upon the servants and 
handmaids in those days will I pour out my Spirit." ^ 

3. The Holy Spirit was circumstantially Prom- 
ised TO HIS Disciples by Jesus Christ. — In that most 
tender scene on the night of the last passover with 
his disciples, when he let them know of his crucifixion 
just at hand, and his final departure from the world to 
the Father, among the most prominent and consolatory 
teachings was his promise of the coming Spirit, who 
should comfort, strengthen, and guide them to higher 
Christian experiences than they had yet attained. In 
various particulars, the results of this coming Spirit 
were presented for their consolation and encourage- 
ment. He would not depart from them. " I will 
pray the Father, and he shall give you another Com- 
forter, that he may abide with you forever." ^ He 

' Jer. xxxi. 31-34. ^ Jq^j ^ 28-32. » j^j^q ^jv. 16. 



254 DISPENSATION OF THE SPIRIT. 

should communicate new truth^ and quicken their 
memory of past instructions. ''The Comforter, which 
is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my 
name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all 
things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said 
unto you." ^ His testimony will strengthen and con- 
firm their witness of Christ's ministry from the first. 
This Comforter, '' even the Spirit of truth, which pro- 
ceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me : and 
ye shall bear witness, because ye have been with me 
from the beginning." ^ 

It was better for them and for the world that Jesus 
should depart, for the Spirit, who would not other- 
wise come, would work graciously and extensively in 
the world, and in making Christ himself more clearly 
known by his people. He would make the sin of all 
unbelief in Christ conspicuous, and give assurance 
that Christ's work on earth was an acceptable ground 
of justification with God, and that Christ had utterly 
vanquished the devil ; and also besides new revela- 
tions of truth, he would add new glory to Jesus by 
making brighter exhibitions of him; all which is 
taught in his saying, '' When he is come, he will re- 
prove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of 
judgment ; of sin, because they believe not on me ; 
of righteousness, because I go to the Father, and ye 
see me no more ; of judgment, because the Prince of 
this world is judged." " He shall glorify me, for he 
shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you." ^ 

> John xiv. 26. ^ jo^n xv. 26, 27. ^ jo^n xvi. 7-16. 



MANNER OF THE SPIRIT'S COMING. 255 

And at a former time Christ had foretold their com- 
ing persecutions, and that they need have no anxiety 
about answers to charges in their arraignments before 
courts and councils, for the Spirit would inspire them. 
" When they bring you unto the synagogues, and unto 
magistrates and powers, take ye no thought how or 
what thing ye shall answer ; for the Holy Ghost shall 
teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say."^ And 
after Christ's resurrection and his commission to the 
apostles, just at the hour of his ascension, he refers to 
this promise of the Spirit in saying, "Behold, I send 
the promise of my Father upon you ; but tarry ye in 
the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power 
from on high.'' ^ And then Luke enlarges upon this 
charge in another writing, that, Christ and the dis- 
ciples being assembled together, "he commanded 
them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, 
but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith 
he, ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized 
with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy 
Ghost not many days hence." "Ye shall receive 
power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, 
and ye shall be witnesses unto me." ^ 

According to this charge there given, the disciples 
went back from the Mount of Olives, after Christ's 
ascension, and took an upper room in Jerusalem, and 
abode in that city, having constant communion and 
prayer " with the women, and Mary, the mother of 
Jesus, and with his brethren." * Here also at the 

^ Luke xii. 11, 12. ^ Luke xxiv. 49. 

2 Acts i. 3, 6, and 8. * Acts i. 13, 14. 



256 DISPENSATION OF THE SPIRIT. 

counsel of Peter, they cast lots, and appointed Mat- 
thias to the place in the apostleship '^from which 
Judas by transgression fell." ^ All were thus in ex- 
pectancy, waiting the coming of the Holy Ghost. 

4. The Actual Descent of the Holy Ghost. — 
The Passover prefigured redemption by Christ, and 
thus, as it was, the crucifixion appropriately occurred 
at the hour for killing the paschal lamb. Fifty days 
after the institution of the first Passover and Israel's 
departure from Egypt was the giving of the law from 
Sinai, and the annual feast of first fruits was instituted 
afterwards to occur at the same period. The sacri- 
fices of burnt-offerings, peace-offerings, and the sin- 
offering were made at the time of this " feast of 
weeks," so called because the fifty days made an 
intervening week of weeks, and which Pentecost 
feast was in perpetual remembrance of deliverance 
from Egyptian bondage,^ and of which the Spirit's 
freeing the soul from the bondage of sin was the 
antitype, and so appropriately the descending power 
of the Holy Ghost was on the day of Pentecost. The 
full account is given in the second chapter of Acts. 

The hundred and twenty disciples of Christ, then 
made, were by agreement together in one place, and 
a sound like the roar of a strong wind filled the room 
where they were, and flickering flames appeared on 
the heads of the disciples, and the power of inspira- 
tion, and miracles, and speaking with tongues, was at 

' Acts i. 15-26. 2 Lev. xxiii. 15-21 ; Deut. xvi. 9-12. 



257 

once communicated to them. The wondrons event 
drew the multitudes from all lands at the feast to this 
meeting of Christ's disciples, and each nation, in its 
own tongue, heard from these Galileans the Chris- 
tian truths to which " the Spirit gave them utter- 
ance." Some mockers said it was drunkenness from 
new wine, but to most the phenomenon was inexpli- 
cable. Peter stood up, and so expounded and applied 
the occurrence, and the truths involved, that three 
thousand believed in Christ, were baptized, and added 
to the one hundred and twenty as a Gospel Church 
the same day. The Holy Ghost thus signalized his 
first special descent, and from that time forward the 
church has depended on the presence of the Holy 
Spirit to guide her ministry and membership, and 
make their evangelical work and example effectual in 
converting the world to Christianity. Jesus Christ 
appeared to Saul supernaturally after this, and thus 
qualified him as an apostle, to be a witness to Christ's 
resurrection ; but with this exception, the divine au- 
thority and power of the Christian church have been 
under the immediate dispensation of the Spirit. In 
the apostolic age miraculous gifts, prophecy, and 
speaking with tongues, were communicated by the 
Spirit for eminently accrediting some disciples, but 
the mass of Christians and Christian ministers then 
and since have relied on his indwelling in the heart. 
17 



258 DISPENSATION OF THE SPIRIT. 



SECTION II. 

THE MANNER OF THE SPIRIT'S AGENCY. 

The Spirit came like the Saviour's representation 
of it to Nicodemus ; a " wind," that one might " hear 
the sound thereof, but could not tell whence it came 
nor whither it went." ^ No sense perceives the Holy 
Ghost, nor is there any consciousness of his presence, 
and we can know directly nothing of him except as 
reason sees him in his moral effects, just as reason 
sees the Creator in his works, or except as revelation 
may describe him. All communion of disembodied 
spirits is beyond our sense-consciousness, and espe- 
cially must the communications of the Absolute Spirit 
be a secret to human experience, as to the mode of 
giving over what is his to be an impartation to us. 
And yet the facts given in experience and divine 
revelation do permit the insight of reason to deter- 
mine many things with strong positiveness about the 
manner of the Holy Spirit's operation upon the human 
soul. Our creed here need not, and should not, be 
mere credulity. 

1. It is as Moral Power distinct from Physical 
Force. — Like the life-energy, the Spirit uses and 

^ John ill. 8. 



MANNER OP THE SPIRIT'S AGENCY. 259 

controls force, without itself being force ; and as a 
.user of forces, his agency is properly power. But 
as his power is not a control of forces in building up 
organisms, as the plant-instinct, nor a mover to loco- 
motion, as in sense-appetites, which, though spontane- 
ous, ai'e still in nature, and as it is wholly in the end 
of fulfilling reasonable behests, so is it wholly moral 
and not mechanical power. The Spirit is free person- 
ality in conscious will, and he works in mind as will, 
and not at all as instinct, or appetite. He controls 
the man only through imperatives and affections, and 
it is exclusively in this moral field that we are now, 
to contemplate the manner of the Spirit's agency. 
We put aside all mechanical force, and blind instinct, 
and sense-craving, and all analogies with such moving 
energies, — for they are all bound in the necessities 
of nature, and have no alternatives in their sequences, 
— and contemplate the Holy Spirit as supernatural, 
working on that which also in man is supernatural, 
and with activity in himself, and securing activity in 
man, which is solely reasonable and responsible. 

" That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that 
which is born of the Spirit is spirit ; " and these two 
are no more to be confounded in their modes of work- 
ing than in their manner of being. The Spirit is 
reason working on reason, and controls the sense 
only through reason. The Holy Ghost can find noth- 
ing in man's animal nature with which he can deal in 
directly gaining his spiritual ends, but subjects what 
is animal in man to God's commandments through 



260 DISPENSATION OF THE SPIRIT, 

conscientious convictions of what ought to be, and 
loving constraint in the choices of v^hat is right to be. 
He works not as on sense to crave, and in executing 
the craving to gratify ; but he works on reason " to 
will," and in executing the will " to do," that which 
reason approved. 

2. The Spirit's Action is direct upon the Human 
Mind. — God's Spirit and man's spirit come directly 
and immediately in communion. All media of sense- 
apprehension are overpassed, and the Spirit finds man's 
immortal spirit itself, and deals face to face with that. 
We have already seen that pure spiritual communion 
is not within human consciousness. We cannot get 
beyond the exercises of our own spirits, and while, 
by careful introspection, we may discriminate these 
exercises, yet we never get the light of consciousness 
down under them, and descry the spirit itself putting 
forth these exercises, and of course we shall never 
get God's immediate communings with our spirits 
into consciousness. But, from the very fact that this 
is below all conscious exercising, and not through 
any media of phenomenal activities, it must be that 
the Holy Ghost and the human soul are together in 
these transactions, with nothing between them. And 
such is clearly Scripture statement, that the Holy 
Ghost works here exclusively from all intervening 
instrumentalities. '•' Which were born, not of blood, 
nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, 



MANNER OF THE SPIRIT'S AGENCY. 261 

but of God." 1 The apostle says, " I have planted and 
ApoUos watered, but God gave the increase ; so then 
neither" is he that planteth anything, neither he that 
watereth, but God that giveth the increase." ^ It 
is also an agency distinct from the action of truth ; 
though both may concur, yet is not the Spirit's action 
the truth's action, for God's choosing to salvation is 
'' through sanctification of the spirit and behef of 
the truth." 3 

3. It precedes and tends to the right Willing 
OP the Man. — The power of the Holy Ghost meets 
the mind of the sinner with his spirit disposed already 
on sense and self-gratification, and not on the ends of 
reason and self-approbation. There may be alarming 
apprehensions and stinging remorse, but no disposition 
that is a return to God and righteousness. The fear 
and conviction of guilt may be the first intimations 
that the Spirit has already met the careless soul. 
The end of the Spirit is in the sinner's disposing his 
voluntariness aright, and which will be the beginning 
of piety in the sinner, and the increase of piety in the 
saint ; to the former the Spirit's work is precedent to 
any holiness, and to the latter it is precedent to the 
increased degree intended, and in both the end is to 
this disposing the soul loyally. Not at all as if the soul 
had begun and was doing the work, and the Spirit of 
God co-operated in helping, but in all oases it precedes 
the voluntary disposing, whether anew in piety, or to a 

^ John i. 13. 2 1 Qoj,. iii. 6, 7. ^ 2 Thess. ii. 13. 



262 DISPENSATION OF THE SPIRIT. 

new degree of steadfastness. But for the Spirit's 
power, the disposing in holiness, either in the renew- 
ing or in the growing sanctification, would never 
occur. God works on the mind " to will " and " to 
do/'and thus before the willing and doing. 

4. The Power of the Holy Spirit may be re- 
sisted BY the Sinner. — All moral power on mind 
I'eaves still to that mind the alternatives of compliance 
or resistance open. It never overbears the liberty 
and responsibility of the mind. A careful analysis 
reveals clearly that so it must be in the application 
of any moral power to the human spirit. When the 
truth in reference to any natural sensibility reaches 
the mind, that truth itself works an effect in the mind 
spontaneously, without the mind's willing anything 
about it. A man hears of the misfortune or death of 
a friend, and the sad message does its work in the 
mind irrespective of the man's agency. And so, when 
any divine truth, as an enunciation of God's will, is 
clearly apprehended, it makes its spontaneous im- 
pression, and quickens intellect and sensibility, ere 
yet the will has been reached. The conscience starts 
into conviction of obligation, and of guilt at not hav- 
ing fulfilled a long incumbent duty, and in this convic- 
tion the will has had nothing to do. The rebellious and 
the loyal wills are alike in this respect ; that applied 
truth works its own convictions in the soul, indepen- 
dently of the soul's willing whether it shall so be, or not. 
And this is the meaning of Christ's declaration, '^ The 



MANNER OP THE SPIRIT'S AGENCY. 263 

words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they 
are life." ^ There is a living efficiency in truth to 
quicken and kindle mental susceptibility, without the 
mind's willing it should do so. 

And now, as a moral power, the action of the Holy 
Ghost on mind is strictly analogous. That spiritual 
power has its own efficiency in modifying the mind on 
which it works, aside from the mind's will helping or 
hindering. The truth and the Spirit may alBfect the mind 
together, and each in its own way distinct one from 
the other, and that mind not have willed at all in the 
matter. So far forth, either with the Spirit or the 
truth, there has been no occasion for resistance. But 
this quickened susceptibility by the truth and by the 
Spirit prompts to its execution, and urges the fulfil- 
ment of the obligation ; and just here comes the occa- 
sion for responsible action. The human spirit must 
now yield to or resist the striving. The will must 
now come into exercise, and the human spirit dispose 
itself with or against the Holy Spirit and the truth. 
The alternatives are both open to it, and it must take 
one or the other ; and as its disposing is, that is its 
will, and this disposing for or against is of the hu- 
man spirit's own origination. This disposing is not 
the truth's, nor the Holy Ghost's disposing, but solely 
the man's spirit disposing, and wholly at his responsi- 
bility. His spirit is not like his sense-appetite, which, 
as of nature, must go towards highest gratification, 
and has no alternatives but degrees of happiness, 

* John vi. 63. 



264 DISPENSATION OF THE SPIRIT. 

of which the higher must prevail against the lower ; 
but his spirit is above nature, competent to control 
natural appetite and all its gratifications, and to sacri- 
fice and reject any degree of happiness for self-appro- 
bation in righteousness. And to this the Spirit strives, 
and the truth prompts, and neither can go any further, 
for the pious yielding or the impious resisting must be 
of the human spirit's originating. Hence the earnest 
caution against " resisting the Spirit," " quenching the 
Spirit," and the manifest accounting the sinner him- 
self guilty in doing it.^ 

5. The Effectual Calling op the Spirit induces 
A COMPLYING WiLL. — The human preacher calls and 
warns, invites and persuades, but he necessarily stands 
outside of the minds he addresses ; and can only do 
his work through the truth he uses. He can only use 
means, and be himself but* an instrument in saving 
sinners. The Holy Ghost most gloriously reverses 
this order of working on human hearts. He comes 
directly to the human spirit, and beyond all means 
works on it, and quickens every faculty and suscepti- 
bility of the man. He rouses conscience that it can- 
not sleep, and quickens convictions of guilt the man 
cannot repress, and stirs sympathies that soften and 
melt the soul's obduracy, so that he- cannot but sigh 
and weep over his sins. In this effectual working, 
though the spirit is competent to struggle on and 
cleave to its sensual bondage, it takes a new disposing, 

» Acts vii. 51 ; 1 Thess. v. 19 ; Eph. iv. 30, 



265 



and renounces flesh and sense, and wakes and acts in 
the recovered freedom of its own sovereignty. It 
now rules, and does not serve, the lusts of the flesh ; 
and the will is in it, and the choice upon it. With all 
the power of the Holy Ghost effectually working, the 
human spirit also has as freely worked in the change 
as in any act in his life when no special power of the 
Holy Spirit was present. What the Spirit has done 
has secured what the sinner has done, but the Spirit's 
doing has been his own, and the sinner's doing has 
been his, and without the former the change would 
not have been, and without the latter the change could 
not have been, for the change is just this new dis- 
posing. 

6. The Assenting Will must be to the Truth. — 
The power of the spirit is not on nor through truth, 
but directly on mind ; yet the truth must be also on 
the mind in order that the assenting will may be. No 
intelligent willing can be in darkness, and this assent- 
ing spiritual disposing is in the end of known truth 
and conscious obligation. The operation of the Holy 
Ghost is other than the action of truth ; and if it were 
conceived to be when truth was not, and suflScient for 
securing the change when the new disposing shall 
come, yet could not that new disposing occur but in 
the presence of truth. The willing must have its end 
as truly as the knowing and feeling, and the very end 
of the pious willing is the truth itself. Hence con- 
version of spirit, and growing sanctification of spirit, 



266 DISPENSATION OP THE SPIRIT. 

must be by the Holy Ghost, as effectually working in 
mind, and must also be through the truth as that to 
which the mind turns and embraces ; and hence, too, 
the propriety and consistency of the -prayer of the 
Saviour, " Sanctify them through thy truth ; thy word 
is truth."! God sanctifies as God renews — by the 
power of the Holy Spirit; but neither is done ex- 
cept in the presence and to the end of truth, which 
is the word of God. . 



SECTION III. 

THE WORK WHICH THE HOLY SPIRIT ACCOMPLISHES. 

In creation, no substantial forces are made by the 
Son which are not systematically arranged in connec- 
tion by the Spirit; and so in redemption, no work 
wrought by the Son is overlooked by the Spirit, but 
in his own time and manner he puts it in available 
communication with the human mind for executing the 
eternal plan of the Father. It was foretold that he 
should " not speak of himself," but should " take of 
the things of Christ and show them unto us." What 
power Jesus Christ has put in the world of humanity 
by his incarnation, life, ynd death, the Spirit applies 
by his power in obtaining the designed result in 

^ John xvii. 17. 



THE WORK OF THE SPIRIT. 267 

human salvation. In the sphere of redemption the 
whole work of the Holy Spirit is upon mind, and in 
full consistency with human freedom and responsi- 
bility ; but without his working the work of the Son 
would be unavailable. His agency is as necessary, and 
as lovingly gracious in the interest of human salvation, 
as that of the suffering Saviour. 

1. The Work of the Holy Spirit in Inspiration. 
— The Incarnation, and thereby the open manifesta- 
tion of God in humanity, was in one age and among 
the people of one country, and yet this was destined , 
to become known and felt in ev,ery age and among all 
people. In order to reach coming ages and distant 
lands, it was necessary to so embody and retain the 
living truth in its power that it might be perpetuated 
and transmitted to all future generations. The wisest 
way conceivable for this was purposed by inspiring 
some selected minds with the divine communication, 
and prompting them to record, as was needed, the 
heavenly messages, and duly authenticate their rec- 
ord, that it should be received and work its power out 
upon the world wherever it should be sent. The 
essential thing is the truth of the record, and that it 
is the truth which God designed to communicate to 
men ; hence the prime importance of the attestation 
of this divine inspiring in the men who received and 
recorded the messages. The writers claim for them- 
selves inspiration on the face of the record itself, and 
they have given valid proof for it ; but with this proof 



268 . DISPENSATION OF THE SPIEIT. 

we are not now concerned, and only with the consid- 
eration of inspiration itself as a work of the Holy 
Spirit. It is the work of Absolute Reason within the 
individuality of finite reason, and so a work of the 
divine Spirit in the human spirit, and which cannot 
be phenomenally perceived, but must be spiritually 
discerned. 

We may be much assisted in rendering this spirit- 
ual work intelligible by following out its fair analogy 
in the field of rational art, inasmuch as the work of 
reason in and through sense in any one case is very 
far explanatory of all other cases. The artist must 
first be fully possessed with the idea he is about to 
embody. He will never get out in expression more 
than is contained in his archetype. The pattern- 
thought may be an origination of his own genius, or 
an adopted and perhaps modified form from some 
other, but the idea must stand clear in his own mind 
as the necessary pre-requisite of his communicating 
anything to others. And when such bright ideal is in 
possession, it ever proves an inner stimulus, strenu- 
ously prompting in some way to its outer manifesta- 
tion. It makes a mental unrest that cannot be quieted 
except as there is given to it some fitting state of 
fixed expression. And in doing this the artist's hand 
is guided by the inner eye of reason intent on this 
created or adopted ideal. 

Even so with the inspired Messenger from heaven. 
He must have the divine idea in clear contemplation, 
and as it must be no original of his own, but wholly 



THE WORK OF THE SPIRIT. 269 

that which Jesus has embodied already for him in 
some experience of his life, these facts of Christ's 
originating must be exactly imparted to him. The 
event must have been once witnessed and then accu- 
rately recalled, and the m.eaning intended unmistaken- 
ly disclosed, and for this " the inspiration of the Spirit 
must give him understanding," and set in clear insight 
the mind and will of the Lord Jesus. With such 
clear impartation of the quick and stirring vision, 
there rises the irrepressible impulse to communicate 
it. It is as " a burning fire shut up in his bones,'' and 
the uneasiness of forbearing wearies so greatly that 
he cannot stay the expressing.^ And in this com- 
municating he must be guided as unerringly as in 
apprehending, so that the very received Idea shall be 
lodged in the literal record. As* in the case of Moses 
with the Tabernacle and its sacred furniture it must 
be made "after the pattern which was shown thee 
in the mount." 

For all this the Holy Spirit works in the mind, 
effectually securing that mind freely to accomplish 
just what in the inspiration is intended — clear posses- 
sion of the truth and correct expression of it. The 
power of Jesus Christ still inheres in his living ex- 
perience, as divinely communicated to the mind of the 
Evangelist, both of deed and word, and their '^ spirit 
and life " rouses him to his work of recording, and 
then goes into his record to quicken future readers ; 
but while thus recording, he needs the constant 

* Jer. XX. 9. 



270 DISPENSATION OF THE SPIRIT. 

present Spirit directly working on his mind, to 
quicken every faculty, that it may take truth accu- 
rately ; to stimulate to intense urgency, that it may 
write promptly ; and then to keep the intensified vision 
on the imparted pattern, that it may copy exactly the 
heavenly meaning. In this way the inspired man 
works in entire freedom, while the Spirit gets the 
work done, as he intends, without error. 

Truth so expressed is no merely honest human record 
of what is sensibly or studiedly apprehended, just as 
all carefully written profane history is ; a sacred 
power is here superintending the whole transaction 
for its own purpose, and making the record, though 
freely written, yet so written as the superintending 
Spirit designed it should be. One in his free charac- 
teristic mode of expression gives his peculiarly marked 
revelation ; another gives his spontaneous record of 
what has been vivid in his mind ; but the Holy Spirit 
has so wrought on each as to get from all just the 
sacred Book he purposed. 

Any mind in any age may be influenced by theHoly 
Spirit to sharper insight and intenser zeal in express- 
ing, and more clear and effective communication of his 
message, and for this the good man, and especially the 
gospel minister, may earnestly and believingly pray ; 
but such assisted message cannot claim the authority 
of plenary inspiration without the attesting super- 
natural signs which must convince others that God 
has sent him. No one may arrogate for himself, nor 



THE WORK OF THE SPIEIT. 271 

may others claim for him, the prerogative of infalli- 
bility without the seal of supernatural powers. 

2. The Work of the Holt Spirit in Miracles. — 
If philosophy can only logically judge from experi- 
ence, any valid conclusion of miraculous occurrences 
is impossible. No experience can then reach beyond 
nature, and nothing can be known out of nature that 
can interfere with nature; and any strange occur- 
rences which may come into experience must be just 
as much of nature as the ordinary onflow of succes- 
sive events. Indeed, from mere experience can be 
deduced no laws of nature to be miraculously sub- 
verted ; all phenomenal changes are mere facts per- 
ceived, and the order of occurrence as marked a fact 
as the phenomena themselves and their changes, and 
no experienced invariable order can be logically 
raised above fact, and made to be law ; and all assump- 
tions of necessary* connections in experience, because 
nature itself has necessary connections, rest solely 
on the habit which events have taken on, and which 
they may at any time break up. It is only when we 
recognize an Absolute Eeason, regulating experience 
through a regulated series of events, that we come 
to any valid knowledge of fixed connections in nature 
from the control of reason put into nature, and thus 
making nature the subject of law, and a legitimate field 
for philosophy. As the creature of reason, and subject 
to reason, nature may have outside interferences, and 
newly introduced events into its old order whenever 



272 DISPENSATION OF THE SPIRIT. 

reason itself may demand it. And such is the meaning 
of a miracle, viz., an interference in nature by the 
Author of nature, when he has reason for it. 

And now, the whole redemptive work for hu- 
manity is supernatural ; as much above nature, and 
from a, source out of nature, as was the origination of 
nature itself; and the carrying on of such a work in 
nature must, in varied ways, reasonably interfere with 
and designedly make changes in the orderly connec- 
tions of nature. When such an interference as only 
the Author of nature can effect is wrought in nature, 
to give his own sanction to a message or messenger as- 
suming to come from him, then is the occasion reason- 
able, and the accredited authority valid. But the 
condition of the interposition of' divine power is 
essential to such validity. An animal interferes in 
one part with nature when he overcomes gravity, and 
makes a weight move up hill ; but animal sensibility 
is nature, and the motive to move the weight has 
been some appeal to sentient nature, and thus as 
much one part of nature interfering with another 
part, as when the force of falling water or condensed 
steam moves machinery. There is here no introduc- 
tion of power from beyond nature. Still further, a 
man, as rational, may overrule sense, and act from 
reason in taste, philosophy, morals, or religion, and so 
work on nature, and make changes in nature that 
originate in a source wholly beyond nature ; and thus 
human interferences in nature are oftentimes com- 
pletely supernatural ; but §uch human changes can 



THE WORK OF THE SPIRIT. 273 

give no valid accrediting to any assumed authority 
from heaven, and so these man-made changes are 
properly no miracles. Even magical enchantments, 
and Satanic " lying wonders/' are no attesting mir- 
acles ; but to give valid warrant, the attestation must 
be superhuman, supersatanic, even divine ; just as 
Moses' rod devoured the serpents which Egyptian 
magicians exhibited, and Paul dispossessed the pytho- 
ness of her '^ spirit of divination." When that which 
only God can do is truly done in nature, to give his 
own authority to his own commissioned ministers, then 
is the occasion reasonable for the miraculous inter- 
position, and the clear interposition valid for the 
claims of a divine commission. So true prophecy is 
a miracle of foreknowledge; and reading the heart, a 
miracle of " discerning spirits ; " and dividing the sea, 
or raising the dead, a miracle of omnipotence ; but the 
reasonable occasions can seldom only occur, for the 
frequent repetition of divine interferences miracu- 
lously must soon subvert the very end designed ; 
but on reasonable occasions, human agents may do 
ti'uly divine deeds. 

But conditional that man should be a miracle-worker, 
is special faith in the impartation to him of a divine 
power. No man could do the mighty work unless he 
had the peculiar faith ; and the genuine faith, though 
small in degree, secures the possession of the power. 
'* If ye had faith as a grain of mustard-seed, ye might 
say unto this sycamine-tree. Be thou plucked up by 
the roots, and be thou planted in the sea ; and it 
18 . 



274 DISPENSATION OP THE SPIRIT. 

should obey you." ^ And the exercise of this faith 
was secured by the inworking of the Holy Spirit 
upon the human mind. Many cases of Old Testament 
miracles had occurred, and the apostles in Christ's 
day wrought miracles, and all from an inworking prin- 
ciple of faith which the Holy Spirit had quickened in 
them ; but the abundant and effective attestation of 
divine authority for human ambassadors from God 
was after the ascension of the Saviour and the de- 
scent of the Spirit at Pentecost. This was one part 
of the power the disciples waited at Jerusalem for.2 
The inward trust prompted the expecting of the en- 
ergizing, and the divine efficiency accompanied the 
human act, and the miraculous result followed. This 
faith could not be, except as grounded in a divine 
promise, and influenced by a divine presence ; and 
hence the human working of miracles can be only in 
an age and place divinely appointed and rationally ap- 
proved, and not at the caprice of human curiosity or 
selfish interest. At times the faith requisite for the 
exigency came only by special " prayer and fasting," ^ 
and sometimes also the persons to be miraculously 
helped must have the peculiar faith ; * but always the 
presence of the faith availed to secure the miraculous 
interposition. And as yet further to be noted, the 
faith available for working the miracle was not that 
requisite for saving the soul, since even men of 
carnal dispositions and disobedient lives have worked 

* Luke xvii. 6 ; Matt. xxi. 21, 22. ^ Luke xxiv. 49 ; Acts i. 8. 

2 Matt. xvii. 20, 21. * Matt. xiii. 68 ; Acts xiv. 9. 



THE WORK OF THE SPIRIT. 275 

piracies. Balaam prophesied/ and the sons of the 
Pharisees cast out devils,^ and a faith that may re- 
move mountains can be without Christian charity ; ^ 
but no worker of miracles in Christ's name, though 
not following him, could lightly speak evil of him, and 
was thus to be allowed in prosecuting his miraculous 
working as, so far at least, in Christ's interest.* 

So the canonical Scriptures stand, attested by mir- 
acles from the Holy Spirit for their inspiration and 
authority, as the only rule infallible for faith and prac- 
tice ; and when any new claims of infallibility are 
made, the miraculous seal from the Holy Ghost can 
alone fix their validity. Such accrediting the church 
and world have needed, and have had ; but the need 
for such may probably never again occur. 

3. The Necessity for, and the Work of, the Holy 
Spirit in Kegeneration. — When our first parents 
fell, they took on a disposition to the ends of sense 
which was a radical perversion and depraving of 
moral character, and sure permanently to be per- 
petuated by them if left to their own course ; and 
still further, their fall so vitiated their sentient nature 
as to secure its universal propagation in the race, and 
this sentient corruption was sure to induce the free 
moral disposing of all their descendants, upon sense- 
gratification as end of life, if no gracious remedy were 
provided. Natural vitiation would carry with it uni- 

^ Num. xxiv. 15-19. ^ j^^tt. xii. 27. 

3 1 Cor. xiii. 2. * Mark ix. 38, 39. 



276 DISPENSATION OP THE SPIRIT. 

versal free moral depravity, if God himself did not 
help. The help needed, and the only he]p available, 
was the introducing of a moral power, which should 
secure the disposing of the spirit away from self- 
gratification as end of life to self-approbation, and 
therein attain a moral character which God could 
approve, and through Christ's mediation could meet 
with his favor. This change of the character which 
was certain to follow from natural birth, when se- 
cured by God's interposition, was known as the '^new 
birth," and involved within it the conditions of re- 
pentance for pardon, and of faith for justification. 
Under whatever influence secured, the disposing of 
the spirit is the person's own agency, either sensual- 
ly or spiritually, and solely on his responsibility ; but 
having bowed in bondage to sense, and become " car- 
nally-minded," the human spirit will persist in his 
carnal disposing, and live on sensually and sinfully. 
" The carnal mind is enmity against God," and in its 
persistent carnality " cannot be subject to the law of 
God ; " and the disposition depraved, the entire life is 
perverse. 

And now, after the redemption-work of Christ, lay- 
ing the ground for pardon and justification, the grand 
condition for its appropriation to any is this new 
spiritual birth ; and the obstinate guilty resistance 
of the old carnal disposition to it, and the yielding in 
no case to any other influence than the direct agency 
of the Holy Spirit upon the carnal mind, make the 
work of the Holy Spirit a necessity, if any one is to 



THE WORK OP THE SPIRIT. 277 

be " born again." The strength of the depraved dis- 
position is manifest in many ways. Legal authority 
may press guilt and awaken remorse and fear in the 
perverse spirit, and threaten speedy application of 
deserved penalty ; yet this is made by the sinner 
rather to intensify his hatred to law for its stern re- 
straint, and the aggravation of its carnal lusting by 
the rebellious heart, and the pressure of law exasper- 
ates rather than subdues the mind to God. This con- 
viction of obligation and guilt must be awakened by 
the application of law, but if the authority of law only 
be applied in any way, the disposition of the rebel will 
not become loyal by it. 

Then appropriately comes the application of the 
power of the cross. Here is a ground of pardon 
from penal infliction, and a righteousness which may 
stand in stead of the obedience the sinner should have 
rendered, and the stern authority of law may still 
stand without the sinner's punishment, and in the loss 
of his personal righteousness ; and so even under the 
pressure of law, the sinner occupies a place where 
peace and reconciliation lie open. Yea, still much 
deeper strikes this power of Jesus' redemption. It 
is the fruit of tenderest pity for you, and kindest com- 
passion; it has been attained through deepest self- 
humiliation and painful self-denial for you. The lay- 
ing by of heavenly glory and taking your humanity, 
and suffering the shame and death of the cross, have 
all been his for your sake ; and this " speaking blood " 
of Calvary pleads with tenderer efficacy for submission 



278 DISPENSATION OF THE SPIRIT. 

and reconciliation than the stern voice of command 
and threatening. And yet this pleading pity and pa- 
tient suffering must still teach as deep abhorrence for 
sin, and as strenuous claim for a disposition set on 
righteousness, as does the authority of law. The man 
must come back with a new disposition in spiritual 
integrity ; and when it is openly seen that sense- 
gratification as end of life must be wholly renounced, 
and self-serving give place to full-hearted devotion 
for God; this deeply convicted and affected soul can, 
and will, put away all soft impressions, and cut short 
all sympathy in the Saviour's suffering, and forget his 
compassion, and despise his love, and as determinately 
as before push his own way on in carnal gratification. 
He will not only hate the law, but will resist the pow- 
er of Christ crucified, and smother convictions of sin 
and all sympathetic relentings in returning sensual in- 
dulgences. Praying saints and pleading friends may 
all add their affectionate and anxious solicitations, 
and before the strength of this carnal disposition, all 
will fail. 

The power of the Holy Ghost, on such as he sees 
reason effectually to operate, here comes in, in con- 
currence with all else which without him is ineffec- 
tual. Face to face with the human spirit, he works 
directly on mind in his own distinct and peculiar way, 
which, so far as our insight into all revealing can go, 
we have before described, and wakes the life and in- 
tensifies the energy of every faculty. Memory is 
quickened to call up anew past sins, and mercies, and 



THE WORK OF THE SPIRIT. 279 

persistent neglect, and ingratitude, and the soul can- 
not shut down its convictions of guilt and desert. 
Self-reproach, and conscious claim, and short opportu- 
nity lay their burdens upon the spirit, which the soul 
can neither put down nor carry along. Old sense- 
indulgences cease to please, and from no quarter comes 
any peace to the troubled heart. In this arrest and 
suspension of all joy, the Holy Spirit further " takes 
the things of Christ and shows them " to the soul whose 
mental eye is now opened to see the suffering, and 
mercy, and waiting wish to receive, and longing in- 
terest to save ; and to this power of the cross he 
additionally works with his own direct power, which 
knows the chords to touch, and how intensely to make 
them vibrate ; and so, in this " day of his power," 
that mind becomes " willing," and the human spirit 
now as freely disposes itself towards God as it before 
did towards self-gratification. Old idols are discard- 
ed ; a new master is taken ; " the old man is put off," 
and " the new man is put on," which after God is 
created in righteousness and true holiness.^ In this 
new disposing is the new life, and at once flow out 
new affections and new volitions. " Old things are 
passed away ; behold, all things are become new ; and 
all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to him- 
self by Jesus Christ." ^ 

When we speak of this change as from the sinner's 
agency, we employ terms expressive of his activity ; 
when in view of the divine agency, we speak of the 

^ Eph. iv. 22-24. ^ 2 Cor. v. 17, 18. 



280 DISPENSATION OF THE SPIRIT. 

sinner as acted on ; but the complete change effected 
inchides both ; and the active ^^ conversion " is also the 
being " born again," and the regeneration is in no way 
completed but in the new disposing of the man's spirit 
under the working of the Holy Spirit. Henceforth, 
the ongoing is in a new direction, and the life has a 
new experience. The consciousness when the change 
occurred may be less or more retained, but the con- 
sciousness that the change has occurred is daily to 
grow clearer. " One thing I know, that whereas I 
was blind, now I see." ^ 

4. The Work of the Holy Spirit in Sanctifica- 
TION. — Christian life begins in regeneration, and sub- 
sequently matures through the natural life. The new- 
born soul must not merely persist in holy living, but 
must grow in holiness; gaining intenser devotion and 
loyalty to God by the discipline of daily experience 
and the prayerful cultivation of all Christian graces. 
The physical faculties of body and soul may augment 
by age and experience in good and bad men, and 
doubtless there is intellectual and emotional growth 
of faculty in an angel ; it is not, however, this growth 
in the being itself of the agent that we here regard, 
but'the growing strength in the spirit and disposition, 
and increasing energy of purpose and fervent zeal 
in all good, which is now contemplated as involved 
in Christian living. The beginning activity of the 
new-born soul is never in full maturity. The new 

* John ix. 25. 



THE WORK OF THE SPIRIT. 281 

disposition is never as full and fixed on God and truth 
as it should be, or as in future experience it must be. 
Intruding appetites call out desultory volitions for 
sense-gratification, and difficulties and dangers oftener 
daunt and discourage than they ought, and tempta- 
tions and crosses are borne less patiently and steadily 
than is right. The spiritual control must grow firmer, 
and colliding sense-inclinations must be held in more 
complete subjugation to the will of God than the first 
Christian experience ever exhibits.' This growing 
energy and stability of the new disposition in regen- 
eration, and which gives augmenting integrity of 
Christian character, is what we here mean by sanctifi- 
cation. It distinguishes itself from other Christian 
states by just this fact of growth. Regeneration be- 
gins Christian life ; sanctification is Christian life grow- 
ing. Pardon is official remission of legal penalty, 
justification is official declaration of the satisfying of 
legal precept, and adoption is official admission to 
God's family ; but sanctification, in reference to each 
of these respectively, is less and less desert of pen- 
alty, more and more conformity to precept, and 
increasing filial afi"ection and obedience. The others 
are complete at once and at the start ; sanctification 
ripens on till the presentation " without spot to God.'' 
Aside from growth, sanctification has other peculiari- 
ties to be noted. 

The work is within the human spirit. — External 
conformity of life is not it, but comes from it, and the 
former may be without the latter. So pharisaical 



282 DISPENSATION OF THE SPIRIT. 

self-righteoQsness may constrain the outer life to great 
exactness in religious rites and ceremonies, but merely 
cleanses and whitens the outside, leaving the inner 
defilement unmitigated. Kitualism may punctually 
observe every imposed rite, and school itself in bodily 
exercises " profiting nothing/' but " he is not a Jew who 
is one outwardly, and circumcision is of the heart." ^ 
The burden of the prayer which is to shape the Chris- 
tian life in growing sanctification must cry with the 
Psalmist, " Search me, O God, and know my heart ; try 
me and know my thoughts, and see if there be any wick- 
ed way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." ^ 
It is persevering. — From the reason in the case, the 
man alone considered, perseverance in holiness could 
not beforehand be affirmed. Adam fell ; some angels 
fell ; the restored sinner is freely holy, and the alter- 
native of falling away is fully open. But the reason 
of the case is far otherwise when the honor and power 
of God are considered. The new life is from God, and 
shall he begin and not be able to finish? Shall Satan 
pluck his redeemed children from his hand ? And yet 
strongly as reason may affirm that God's begun work 
must be carried on to its consummation, the impor- 
tance of the doctrine has secured for it God's direct 
declaration in addition tD speculative reason. Under 
inspiration Paul thus reasons : " For if when we were 
enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of 
his Son, much more being reconciled we shall be saved 
by his life." ^ And again, " Being confident of this 

» Rom. ii. 28, 29. ' Ps. cxxxix. 23, 24. ^ Rom. v. 10. 



THE WORK OF THE SPIRIT. 283 

very thing, that he which hath begun a good work 
within you will perform it unto the day of Jesus 
Christ." 1 And so reason all the inhabitants of heav- 
en, who " rejoice more over one sinner that repent- 
eth than over ninety and nine just persons which 
need no repentance." ^ They take the assurance that 
true repentance is persevering, and they rejoice un- 
questioningly so soon as it begins. Direct declarations 
are exceedingly numerous in the Bible, and probably 
no doctrine is more repeatedly asserted than that of 
persevering sanctification. *' Whoso liveth and be- 
lieveth in me shall never die." ^ ^' Whosoever drink- 
eth of the water that I shall give him shall never 
thirst ; but the water that I shall give him shall be in 
him a well of water springing up into everlasting 
life."^ ^' After that ye believed, ye were sealed with 
that Holy Spirit of promise which is the earnest of 
your inheritance." ^ 

Those texts asserting perdition if one falls away 
are the stronger modes of asserting that the saint will 
not fall, since so improbable a consequence cannot 
have its occasion. Just as in Paul's hypothetical dec- 
laration, " Though we or an angel from heaven preach 
any other gospel, let him be accursed," ^ was no ad- 
mission that apostles and angels would preach an- 
other gospel, but rather the curse if they should, was 
its greatest improbability; and so with this other 

1 Phil. i. 6. * Luke XV. 7. ^ John xi. 26. 

* John iv. 14. ^ Eph. i. 13, 14. « Gal. i. 8. 



284 DISPENSATION OP THE SPIRIT. 

declaration, ^' For it is impossible for those who were 
once enliglitened, and have tasted of the heavenly 
gift, &C.J if they shall fall away, to renew them again 
to repentance." ^ It means not that such experienced 
saints shall fall, but rather that the impracticability of 
renewing them again, if they did, was the strongest 
expression of its improbability. None who finally 
perish were ever saints, for of the best of such Christ 
says he ^^ never knew them."^ And John says, 
" They went out from us, but they were not of us." ^ 

Sayictification luill he perfected at death. — Different 
notions of perfection have occasioned different opin- 
ions of complete sanctification in this life. One may 
deem his own state perfect, which another sees to be 
very imperfect. The new disposition may be sincere 
in end and aim, and truly towards God and righteous- 
ness, but the sincere change is not, as such, evidence 
that the disposing is " with all the heart, mind, and 
strength." That .strength of disposition which has 
kept sense in good subjection for a time, so that the 
man may not have been conscious of sin, may still be 
very imperfect and fall into grievous sins in other 
trials at other times. Perfection in faith and love, so 
as properly to be complete sanctification, must be so 
whole-souled that no trial shall overcome, and no temp- 
tation lead astray. This ought so to be in all cases, 
at all times, and a failure to stand so firmly at all 
times is at the responsibility of the sinner. So firm 
every Christian should be, and hence it is possible for 

1 Heb. vi. 4-6. ^ Matt. vii. 23. ^ ^ j^i^^ jj^ ^9^ 



THE WORK OF THE SPIRIT. 285 

him to be ; but possibility and duty are not evidences 
that the fact yet is. The inquiry is, will such perfec- 
tion be till after death ? 

No present consciousness of overcoming strength 
can be consciousness of strength which shall always 
overcome. No possible present exp'erience can be the 
ground on which to determine all future experience, 
even in cases of entire liberty and responsibility. It 
will not, thus, be right for any one to assume that he 
now has such perfect sanctification. All probability 
is against him, and the decision of revelation is 
squarely on the other side. Sinless perfection has 
been in no human experience but in the man Christ 
Jesus. The Lord's Prayer is meant for all living, and 
it makes confession of sin. Paul proves, from the 
Old Testament Scriptures, " that all, Jews and Gen- 
tiles, are under sin." ^ And John affirms that " if we 
say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth 
is not in us." ^ And Solomon of old affirmed, " There 
is not a just man on earth that doeth good and sin- 
neth not." 3 

But at death, we are informed, all sin passes away, 
and complete sanctification reigns. Not because a 
completely sanctifiad man could not longer live, do 
we put perfection to be at death ; nor is it because 
death has itself a sanctifying efficacy ; but, dropping 
the body of sense and retaining only the spiritual 
body, and coming into direct communion with the 
Holy Spirit, the whole soul comes into complete and 

1 Rom. iii. 9. ^ i joj^n i. 8. ^ Eccl. vii. 20. 



286 DISPENSATION OF THE SPIRIT. 

ecstatic consecration and beatitude. Nothing within 
hinders, and nothing without defiles, and even the 
coming resurrection body is wholly incorruptible.^ 

5. All the Work of the Holy Ghost is in full 
Sovereignty. — The Holy Ghost has been sent of the 
Father and of the Son, and executes his commission 
as third person in his own conscious voluntariness; 
and thus the regeneration and sanctification of sin- 
ners have, in their procuring, the agencies of all the 
personalities in the Godhead concurrently operating, 
and the whole work is in the absolute sovereignty of 
the Deity. Sovereignty is not arbitrary purpose with- 
out reason, but purpose wholly in the end of reason. 
What the Holy Spirit does is determined in its abso- 
lute reasonableness. It accords with his reason; it 
satisfies his reason; it is absolved from all other 'inter- 
ests than reason ; and this makes the action to be in 
pure sovereignty. He chooses among sinners with 
the end of reason in view, and so his election is in 
sovereignty, and all is the same as to say that the ulti- 
mate is his own excellency or glory. The operation 
of the Spirit in saving men comes in under these 
following conditions : The whole race were in a hope- 
less state. Jesus' incarnation and death opened 
redemption for all. God would have all freely accept 
this salvation. Man's perverse disposition universally 
rejects the offered salvation. Some effectual agency 
must just here come in, or the redemptive sacrifice 

» 1 Cor. XV. 42-44 ; Rev. xxi. 27. 



THE WORK OF THE SPIRIT. 287 

utterly fails. And as, when God would not have Jew- 
ish offerings, the Saviour said, " Lo, I come to do thy 
will, my God," so when all human souls reject, the 
Spirit is sent "to convince of sin, of righteousness, 
and of judgment." He convicts, converts, and sanc- 
tifies men according to the divine will. He does just 
what in the whole case is reasonable should be done. 
As already seen, his work on the mind is a moral 
power, and not mechanical force ; and he executes his 
own purpose through the freedom of the human 
spirit. 

How, then, it may be asked, does he secure the sal- 
vation of any? The answer is, that his work on 
mind, in quickening and rousing every faculty, secures 
the sinful spirit's working in the change from sense- 
disposing to spiritual-disposing. The old disposition 
on sensual gratification becomes the new disposition 
on spiritual approbation. If he so turn some freely, 
it may be further asked, Why not turn more ? Why 
not save all ? The answer comes from the very being of 
the Absolute Reason in his sovereignty, that something 
higher must be regarded than human salvation. That 
must be secured, if at all, in a way that shall consist 
altogether with right and reason, and to save other, or 
more, will require action which somewhere must vio- 
late reasonable claims, and be doing wrong. If sin- 
ners, more or all, will themselves come, they may and 
welcome. But if they will not, and the Spirit must 
work on them for their disposing, then must he guide 
his work by perpetual regard to its universal reason- 



288 DISPENSATION OF THE SPIRIT. 

ableness^ Tightness, respect for his own excellencj^'s 
sake. He so does this, that in keeping to what is '' good 
in his sight/' he forever shuts off all just complaint, 
and secures coming universal assent to his integrity.^ 
What is done by the Spirit in electing in time had the 
same reason for the purpose in eternity .^ So with 
election to eternal life ; it is direct, and in the sover- 
eignty of Absolute Reason, to the end that the elect- 
ed be secured in holiness. But, on the other hand, 
election to eternal death, which is the doctrine of rep- 
robation, must not be viewed in the same way as 
a direct and eternally designed work of the Holy 
Spirit. There is no direct, designed influence of the 
Holy Spirit to secure and perpetuate a depraved dis- 
position. The Holy Spirit must needs work upon de- 
praved hearts if they are to be renewed, and he does 
this to the end and in the way of its eternal reasonable- 
ness : and so doing, he finds such as it would be unrea- 
sonable he ever should have chosen, and who must be 
left in their own determined disloyalty, and their final 
rejection is of their own procuring. To each of such 
determined rejecters of Jesus and his offers must come 
the time when longer waiting shall be unreasonable, 
dishonorable to God, and inviting to universal disre- 
spect of the Spirit's authority ; and at such time all fur- 
ther gracious striving must cease. With some, this may 
be before life closes, and as incorrigibly "joined to their 
idols," they are " let alone." And in all other cases, 

^ Isa. V. 4; Matt. xi. 26; Rom. iii. 19. 
« Eph. i. 4 ; 2 Thess. ii. 13. 



THE WORK OP THE SPIRIT. 289 

the divine striving must terminate with the natural 
life. The end of the Spirit's work is a new spiritual 
disposition controlling all carnal inclination, and which 
must be in the day of fleshly probation. When the 
sinner is cut down by death, it must be as with the 
fruitless tree, pruned a while, but when proved hope- 
lessly barren, it is cut down, to lie as ifc falls. No 
culture succeeds with the sinner in the absence of 
divine influence, and with it some only become new- 
born, while others reject and resist all that it is right 
the Spirit should do for them, and they are necessa- 
rily lost as their own destroyers. 

So the dispensation of the Holy Spirit will last, and 
his work extend over the ages, till all which may be 
done by him for human salvation will have been ex- 
hausted. The gospel will be preached, and the mis- 
sionary sent, to all nations, and converts be made in 
all lands, and the word of life and the church and its 
ordinances be given to all people. Ancient prophecy, 
and revealed promise and purpose of God, shall have 
their complete fulfilment, when also the Spirit's work 
shall be finished, and all that God's plan of redemption 
can effect for human conversion and recovery to spir- 
itual life, under the righteously applied power of the 
Holy Ghost, will have been secured ; and then the last 
things must occur in the closing of human history. 
We do not need to trace the course of Christian eccle- 
siastical history in detail up to the present time, nor 
attempt to settle where in the process of prophetic 
fulfilment our age stands. We only need to know the 
19 



290 DISPENSATION OF THE SPIRIT. 

Holy Ghost will preside over and guide the church, 
and show the things of Christ to her members, and 
convince the world of Christ's true Messiahship "to 
the glory of the Father," till his second coming. 

We may well believe, from the increased mission- 
ary zeal and prayer of the church, and the Christian 
enterprise of the age, and the faith and expectation 
of Christians, that we are near to auspicious events, 
and extensive changes for good to mankind. One 
wide-spread iniquity after another is attacked and 
abolished, and the hope and courage of good men, not- 
withstanding prevalent infidelity and abounding ini- 
quity, were never so high and strong as now. The 
nations of the world are to become the one kingdom of 
the Redeemer, and in his own time he shall come and 
stretch his sceptre over them. 



LAST THINGS IN REDEMPTION. 291 



CHAPTER V. 

THE LAST THINGS IN THE REDEMPTION OF 
HUMANITY. 

In the interest of the Absolute Reason himself it 
behooved him to people this earth with human be- 
ings, constituted in the union of sense and spirit; 
and so constituted, the fair trial for the control of the 
spirit over sense became also a claim of reason. This 
trial, we have found, eventuated in the progenitors of 
the race voluntarily subjecting the spirit to the bond- 
age of sense, and which so vitiated the sentient na- 
ture as to insure the disposing of the spirit to the 
ends of sense in all their posterity. A gracious plan 
of Redemption then opened a second probation for 
man, in full satisfaction with every claim of reason 
and under stronger influences for spiritual integrity 
than in the first probation ; and with an assurance 
that the Redeemer should have a seed whose service 
should satisfy him for all his sacrifice. We have fol- 
lowed the history of humanity through this gracious 
probation, " founded on better promises," under the 
dispensations of the Son, and then of the Holy Spirit ; 
and now, as the mediatorial work is to close, the 



292 LAST THINGS IN REDEMPTION. 

issues must be as accordant with reason as the whole 
process has been. The Universe must know that all 
has been rightly ordered. 

From the reason in the case itself, the whole proba- 
tion of man must pass while the spirit is in union with 
the flesh, since the end of the probation is to bring 
the body in subjection to the spirit ; but a state of 
retribution necessarily involves a change in the mode 
of being. " Flesh and blood cannot inherit the king- 
dom of God, neither doth corruption inherit incorrup- 
tion," and yet the change in the mode of existence 
must admit of full conscious identity and personal 
individuality in this passing from trial to final award. 
What our speculation has already attained will enable 
us intelligently to follow the conscious experience of 
humanity over from a gracious probation to a final 
retribution, and to clearly note the Last Things in the 
closing mediation which opens into direct face-to-face 
beholding. As in the history thus far we have kept 
our insight constantly to the facts of nature and reve- 
lation, so in what is to come we must carefully note 
the few but emphatic annunciations of the word of 
God, as the grand source of light and authority in 
searching for and establishing the truth and doctrine 
of a carefully considered Eschatology. Reason can 
read the facts which are to close time and open eter- 
nity only in God's revelation ; but such revelation is 
a sealed book to sense, and has no meaning but for a 
spiritual discernment. 



VIEW OF HUMAN DEATH. 293 



SECTION I. 

SPECULATIVE VIEW OF HUMAN DEATH. 

Human probation terminates in death. The first 
trial and fall would have eventuated in eternal death, 
as originally threatened, but for the merciful inter- 
position of a redemptive plan, and on the ground of 
which a second state of probation was secured. It 
behooved God to indicate his displeasure for the first 
sin in lasting consequences through the ages, and in 
the delay of the original penalty, among other items 
of the divine disapprobation was the curse of tem- 
poral death. " Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt 
thou return." In some sense the animal dies as truly 
as man, and yet in the animal kingdom death has 
reigned perpetually from before the creation and fall 
of man, and was thus neither a result of man's sin, 
nor a curse following any moral probation. Death to 
the brute is something quite other than death to man. 
The brute was designed to be mortal, but man's origi- 
nal immortahty was both indicated and secured by 
his free access to " the tree of life," while on his fall 
the indication and certainty of coming death to him 
was in the barring up the way to the tree of immor- 
tality. It was a curse to him consequent upon his 



294 LAST THINGS IN REDEMPTION. 

sin, and when it occurs it terminates for him his new 
state of probation. The opportunity of subduing ap- 
petite to the governing spiritual disposition passes, 
and the way opens for final retribution in a new state 
of being appropriate for it. In some respects man's 
death and dissolution is like that of animals, but in re- 
ality it essentially differs from all other forms of dying. 

1. All Death differs from Natural Decomposi- 
tion. — In nature there is perpetual alteration as sub- 
stitution of one thing in the place of another, and also 
continual change as modification going on in the 
same thing. The fluid stream congeals to a sohd, 
or passes utterly away in evaporation, but in such 
change there is no death. The mechanical forces in 
nature are ever combining and dissolving, but na- 
ture's forces are in constant conservation, and from 
nature nothing dies out. Death in any form is more 
than chemical decomposition, for in no chemical or 
crystallizing combinations has there been life. 

2. In the Vegetable Kingdom is the Lowest Life, 

AND HENCE THE SIMPLEST FORM OP DeATH. — The plant 

has been built up by the life-instinct, and organized 
according to the specific type in the ends to which 
the original want refers ; and through all the vegeta- 
ble kingdom the life-power which builds and inhabits 
and uses the organism is instinctive only, going out 
to its end, with never a return upon its agency in 
self-recognition. It has no capabilities for concentrat- 



VIEW OF HUMAN DEATH, 295 

ing its activity in any point, where the activities 
might meet in self-feeling. Superinduced upon ethe- 
real force, as is the life-want, for the end of assimila- 
tion and combining of material forces into its own 
corporeity, it uses the ethereal force for that end 
alone, and never organizes its combinations in any 
capacity for conscious activity. In its original want, 
it has no such typical end as attaining sentiency, or 
conscious agency. Hence, when it has exhausted 
itself in assimilations and reproductions, its organism 
dissolves, and the life- want departs from it. The con- 
tinued organism was the individual plant, or tree, 
during its continuance ; and when the organism is 
gone, the individual is lost forever. The plant so 
lives, and in dissolving dies ; and that plant has no 
reviving. The life-want, separate from the old organ- 
ism in the propagation of a new plant by sex-genera- 
tion, goes on in its new organism as a new individual ; 
but when the organism itself dissolves, the life-want 
has no individual manifestation. Its history ceases 
with the organism it constructs ; and such history is 
only for another, for it never finds nor leaves any con- 
scious experience. We can say nothing of the life- 
want, independently of it.s working in the end of an 
individual body, and thus plant-death is individual 
plant-dissolution. 

3. In the Animal Kingdom there is Sentient Con- 
sciousness, AND THUS A DeATH OP SENSATION. — The 
assimilating agency, building and perpetuating the 



296 LAST THINGS IN REDEMPTION. 

• 

animal organism, is as purely instinctive as that 
which builds up the plant ; the conscious sensation 
comes after the organizing instinct has done its 
work. But that .instinct has originally an end in 
its construction, beyond that which builds the plant. 
It works for an organism, in which it may come 
to itself in conscious recognition. It adds to its 
organization a fixed centralization, and thus makes 
occasion for complete circulation about and through 
the fixed points where its agency may come in upon 
itself. Its peculiarity is an organism of nervous irri- 
tability, with its ganglionic centres, and outlying af- 
ferent and efferent filamentary communications. The 
incoming report from the exterior to the ganglion 
gives opportunity for reaction in sensation, and this 
again is occasion for an answer to the same in some 
conscious form of execution. The central ganglion 
has a point of reciprocity, where action to and action 
from may have mutual meeting, and come into com- 
munion, and so be felt by the one irritable life-organ. 
And when this nervous organism is complicated with 
many ganglia, and all these nerve-centres have their 
co-ordinating sensorium, and in this a prime ganglion 
of all ganglia, we have animal life, competent to feel 
its own agency, and direct that agency again from its 
own feeling. 

But this nerve organism is the necessary condition 
for sentient activity. Only through it is there a con- 
scious appetite, and a conscious executive in its grati- 
fication; and when the nervous organism dissolves, 



VIEW OF HUMAN DEATH. 297 

and ganglionic centres and co-ordinating sensorium 
all fall in pieces, the sentient life dies in the same 
stroke which dashes down the system with its minis- 
tering members. The living instinct not only ceases 
workmg in assimilating and incorporating, as in the 
death of a plant, but much more ; the whole work of 
recognized self-feeling, and active self-gratifying, dies 
in the same organic dissolution. Just as in the plant 
the individual is lost in death, so here, both instmctive 
life and sentient consciousness together go out, and 
the conscious sentient individual is no more. 

4. Human Death leaves the Spirit still Immor- 
tal. — Man does not live, nor can man die, as does 
the brute. To him the identity and individuality 
are retained in and through death. He has an outer 
body of flesh, like the animal, in which sense and sex 
distinctions and natural affections have their source ; 
and this may be dissolved and pass away like the 
brute body, when it has subserved its designed end. 
But this body of "the earth, earthy (cAozAjos)," ^ has 
its substantial base of material forces, which the 
claims of the spiritual in man will not permit shall at 
any time be dissolved. The ethereal life-instinct has 
assimilated matter to itself by infusing its own vital 
energies, and made the matter to be living and 
sentient nature, just as the animal body ; but this 
ethereal-instinct and sentient-consciousness has the 
still higher endowment of rationality in man, making 

1 1 Cor. XV. 47. 



298 LAST THINGS IN REDEMPTION. 

him to be free personality, and responsible for the 
character of the disposition he forms ; and this will 
not allow the substantial basis of his sentient nature 
to pass away. The interest of the spirit must hold 
the sentient soul in immortality, and that must hold a 
material body together for itself in perpetual unity. 
And this has been abundantly confirmed in the revela- 
tion God has given, and the meaning which the reason 
reads in the written word. 

The divine inspiration sending life into the nostrils 
of the first man sent, moreover, a rational spirit in 
the Maker's image along with it. The living soul 
which man thus became was other than the sentient 
nature of the brute. The sense became imbued with 
spirit, and while the spirit's own abode was in its 
retained ethereal forces, it also infused its agency 
through the animal sense, making this to be persistent 
human soul, the tabernacle for which was the substan- 
tial material forces that was the basis of the animal 
body. There is thus the occasion for comprehending 
the Scripture analysis of man's whole being. The 
ethereal forces held as the pure temple of the spirit, 
constitute Paul's pneumatikon, translated " spiritual 
body ; " ^ and the working of the spirit through the 
sentient soul, and holding permanently about the soul 
the material basis of the animal structure, constitutes 
Paul's psuchiion,. tr^iusldited less discriminatingly, in 
the same text, " natural body." The first is the body 
of the pneuma ; the second is the body of the psuche ; 

* 1 Cor. XV. 44. 



VIEW OF HUMAN DEATH. 299 

and then over and beside this is the choikos, as the 
" earthy/' ^ and which is the mere animal nature that 
perishes. The pneumatikon is the inner penetralium 
of ethereal forces which the spirit directly controls 
and uses ; the psuchikon is the permanently held 
material forces which the sentient soul occupies, and 
on which the changing elements of the bodily mem- 
bers gather and dissolve, and so linked by the spirit, 
the soul and soul-body are made co-existent and immor- 
tal with the spirit and the spirit-body. 

But this soul and spirit, psuche and pneuma, each 
of which the man has, but neither of which the brute 
has, and which during probation have been in living 
connection, are now in the closing of probation to be 
sundered; and in this separation of soul and spirit 
beyond the dissolving of the animal body, is the 
peculiarity of human death. " The word of God," 
through the probationary period, has been " as a sharp 
two-edged sword " in its living truth, discriminating 
accurately between appetites and obligations, utilities 
and duties, gratifications of sense and approbations 
of conscience, and has thus intellectually " divided 
asunder the soul and spirit ; " ^ j^^t now, that which 
has been intelligibly so clearly distinguished is to 
become an actual dissevering, and by the stroke of 
death, soul and spirit are literally to be divided, 
and their long intimate union violently parted. There 
is to be all the going out of life from the animal body, 
and the dissolution of its elements, as with the perish- 

1 1 Cor. XV. 47. ^ Heb. iv. 12. 



300 LAST THINGS IN REDEMPTION. 

ing beast ; and so the choikos, as earthy body of flesh, 
and blood, and bones, will decompose, and such sense- 
want and animal appetite as have been subservient to 
nourishment, and organic growth, and reproduction, 
and sympathizing interaction, pass away in the ele- 
mentary disintegration ; but the soul and soul-body as 
the basis on which the mere sentient animality has 
temporarily rested will survive, and not the dissolu- 
tions of the animal, but the sunderings of the psychi- 
cal and the spiritual will be that which gives to 
human death its pang, and both to soul and spirit 
their dread and dismay in the terrible execution of 
the primeval curse for sensual depravity. The soul 
and. the soul-body go their way together, and the 
spirit and the spiritual body go their way to God who 
gave the spirit to the ethereal living forces. , The 
real death for man is in the parting of soul and spirit, 
while both are separately perpetuated. 



SECTION II. 

THE INTERMEDIATE STATE. 

The individuality of existence in both the vegeta- 
ble and animal kingdoms is in the persistence of the 
life instinct in holding the organism in combination. 
The dissolution of the organism is the final loss of the 



INTERMEDIATE STATE. 301 

individual. The individuality of man is in the per- 
petuity of the rational spirit to hold the ethereal 
living forces together as its spiritual body, and at the 
same time to hold the sentient life perpetual in the 
assimilated material forces as the psychical body. So 
long and so far as the spiritual and psychical bodies 
stand in union, there is complete individuality ; but 
at death this union is interrupted, and in so far there 
is an interference with the human individuality. 
Inasmuch as the separation at death is repugnant 
to both soul and spirit, and reluctantly endured, it 
awakens the rational anticipation that the separation 
is not final and forever. The reason of the case opens 
a view in which is the requisition for a reunion that 
shall be permanent. The speculative inquiry, then, 
at once arises respecting the condition of man after 
death, and preceding this future reunion of soul and 
spirit. Here is an intermediate state for man : what 
is that state ? and the experience of- the man in it ? 

Revelation gives short but expressive hints in 
reference to such experience, while it is full and 
explicit that man is to pass such an intermediate state 
of existence. These revealed facts must guide the 
speculation, but they determine directly nothing of 
locality, and little of personal agency and experience ; 
and yet, what is said involves much that a careful 
insight may clearly gain relatively to individual com- 
munion with God and other spirits, and in the future 
of inner personal consciousness. The Scripture no- 
tices not merely consist with, but quite fully confirm, 



302 LAST THINGS IN REDEMPTION. 

the speculative attainments hitherto made, since these 
declarations cannot apply but to such peculiar modes 
of being. 

1. The Conscious Individuality after Death. — 
The animal body of flesh and blood dissolves at death, 
and were there nothing in man but his sentient con- 
sciousness, his individuality would be as the brute 
which perisheth. But the hold of the spiritual upon 
the sensual has immortalized it, and the substantial 
forces in which it abides. There is no longer occa- 
sion for mastication and digestion, heart pulsation 
and circulation, respiration, reproduction, and recuper- 
ation of wasted forces ; all organs designed for such 
functions in the probationary state dissolve, and their 
material forces are no longer retained in the individu- 
ality. But the basis of all sentient life and conscious- 
ness in the substantial material forces on which the 
fleshly organism has rested, still remains undecom- 
posed and perfect. In these essential forces of the 
material body abide the undying life and sentiency 
of the individual, and all the record of his previous 
sense-history and experience is left indelible within 
and upon them. The spirit has so imbued the sense 
with rationality and responsibility, that it canpot be 
allowed to fade away, nor its essential material organ- 
ism to fall in pieces. So much of the spirit inheres 
in the sentient soul and the psychical body, that it 
individualizes and immortalizes them, and they cannot 
dissolve as the flesh falls back to dust. There is a 



I 



INTERMEDIATE STATE. 303 

Spiritual interest in them, and a future demand for 
them, which must keep them entire in their identity. 
And yet in their separation from the spiritual, they 
are not so held in it as to partake of its personality. 
The sentient soul in its indissoluble body is separated 
from the personal reason in its spiritual body, and 
were it active in a conscious experience, it could be 
only for sense-gratifications, and using its material 
body so far as it might for sentient happiness. Such 
activity would have no rational importance, and its 
life may be left where revelation leaves it, safely 
abiding the coming morn when reason shall call 
loudly for it. Subject as it is to all the mundane 
forces, they cannot hurt, but only keep it in the 
world where it had acted till the spirit departed 
from it. 

But the spirit, separate in death from the soul and 
its psychical body, has its body of living light, and in 
it is a free citizen of the ethereal universe. It is 
purely personal, and its own disposing, accordingly 
as formed in probation, governs the spiritual body in 
which separately it now abides. It uses the living 
light of its own body in working on and through the 
light about it at its pleasure. It changes the equili- 
brations of diremption in its own forces to any meas- 
ures of excess on any side, and so has locomotion in 
the ethereal universe at will, in any direction, and 
with any measure of velocity. The inner reason is 
identical in the same forces, and so individualizes 
them inf perpetually holding them in one ; and such 



304 LAST THINGS IN REDEMPTION. 

spiritual individual is the identical personality, once 
linked to and working in and through its own soul- 
body in its state of probation, but which at death it 
left behind in the terrestrial sphere where the trial 
together had been made, now traversing the uni- 
verse through any field of light it pleases. Its per- 
sonal individuality is in and with the spiritual body, 
but it has its rational interest in and claims upon the 
sentient soul in the soul-body, and recognizes that 
this soul is, and is alone, for it, and not another. 

2. The Spirit-world. — The material worlds move 
in their places in their respective systems, and each 
must have for its own inhabitants the periods of time 
measured from its own revolutions ; but the spiritual 
body is held hy no single world, and is not to be con- 
ceived as limited within any definite locality. To it 
there are no material nor spacial restrictions. The 
universal ethereal sphere is open to the spirit in its 
spiritual body. The light is everywhere diffused, 
and wherever a spirit in its ethereal body may be, the 
universe is in panorama about him. The ages from 
all particular worlds, as standing in their particular 
histories, may be estimated by him, and disregarding 
all special times of particular worlds, the absolute uni- 
versal time, as determined by the moving of all sys- 
tems about the universal centre, is the ultimate meas- 
ure to which he must subject all partial particular 
periods. Every spirit, good and bad, is let out in full 
freedom into the common ethereal universe. The 



INTERMEDIATE STATE. 305 

material worlds are held in their places in the pe- 
ripheral portion of the universal sphere, while the in- 
terior region is pure ether surrounding the central 
creating and managing source of all. The spiritual 
body is susceptible to all ethereal action, and its com- 
munications for conscious recognition are from all 
quarters and through all light-vibrations. What we 
have learned of the universe, from the work of Crea- 
tor and Creation, opens at once to our comprehension 
the outer freedom and expanse of spiritual existences. 

3. All Restriction is from Personal Disposition. 
— Spiritual life is essentially free life. The universe 
is open to it. But each man has his controlling dis- 
position, fixed in the period of his probation, and his 
very freedom determines his communions and exclu- 
sions. There are no outer bars, and only inner likes 
and dislikes. If reason's end has been taken as the 
guide of all action, then nothing hinders in all that 
reason approves. If self-indulgence has been taken 
as end of life, then has the spirit lost its rationality 
and become unreason, and shut itself off from all 
rational interests. The person knows his own dis- 
posing, and the spiritual body is no disguise to 
another's discerning, and thus every man's disposi- 
tion limits for him his moving and his resting. Rea- 
son's rule is reason's right, and the righteous will 
be where the approbation of conscience determines. 
Self-gratification rejects all right, and thus subjects 
its own spirit to perpetual disapprobation. This fixes 
20 



306 LAST THINGS IN REDEMPTION. 

the separating gulf between the good and bad, and 
shuts off all annoyances from the one side and all al- 
leviations from the other. The righteous can make 
no ministrations to the wicked, and the wicked can 
give no disturbances to the righteous. They have 
all passed into the one invisible state, from mortals, 
known as Hades ; yet such invisible world to mortals 
has no local restrictions, but the more effectual moral 
separations. 

'4. There is no Opportunity for Purgatorial Ex- 
periences. — So far as all moral change in purifica- 
tion of spirit from selfish purposes is concerned, the 
one influence of Christ's redemption by the Spirit's 
application gives all that can be effectual, and that 
belonged to the probationary state which has now 
gone by. And so far as withdrawing from the in- 
fluences of carnal appetites is concerned, the dissolu- 
tion by death has made a complete purgation, and 
the earthy body of flesh and bone has been wholly left 
behind. The disposition acquired and retained fixes 
the character, and no experiences in the intermedi- 
ate state change that, nor can any discipline there 
cleanse the spirit from its impurities. " He who is 
holy will be holy still, and he who is filthy will be 
filthy still." Nothing can here be done to the spirit 
or the spiritual body to cleanse from any pollution ; 
the moral stains are all from the spirit's" own agency, 
and the fountain of its activity in the permanent dis- 
position remains after death entirely the same. 



intermediate state. 307 

5. The Spirit at Death goes to its Final Home. — 
The intermediate state changes for a permanent state 
only in the mode of existence by the reunion with 
the soul, but the home is unchanged. The dying 
thief went at once to " paradise/' and paradise is the 
" third heaven." ^ Stephen expected to go, at death, 
to heaven as he saw it open.^ Jesus Christ is in 
heaven, but saints at death go where Christ is.^ And 
saints come with Christ at the judgment.* And so 
also in John's prophetic vision.^ And if thus the 
saints at death go at once to heaven, the wicked also, 
like Judas, go to their "own place." It is not a 
sound conclusion, that somewhere there is a place of 
two apartments for the dead, which will be emptied 
at the resurrection ; but the open universe receives 
all spiritual bodies, and then takes back again the 
same when the sentient soul is reunited to its own 
personality. 



^ Luke xxiii. 43. Confer 2 Cor. xii. 2-4. * Acts vii. 55-59. 

3 2 Cor. V. 8 ; Phil. i. 23. * 1 Thess. iv. 14. 

* Eev. vii. 13-17. 



308 LAST THINGS IN REDEMPTION. 



SECTION III. 

THE RESURRECTION. 

The New Testament Scriptures have two words 
expressive of the resurrection ; one an arousing^ as if 
from sleep, and the other a standing up again, as if 
from a reclining posture ; the latter being the more 
frequent. The doctrine means more than restored 
consciousness to the soul, and implies the return of 
the spirit to the body. The full import of the Chris- 
tian doctrine of the resurrection is, a raising of the 
bodies of the dead, and a reunion of each with its own 
spirit, 

1. This is indicated in the Analogies of Nature. 
— In the vegetable kingdom, the vital energy has its 
first exhibition in the seed, but it attains its full ma- 
turity only through dissolution. " The blade, then 
the ear, afterwards the full corn in the ear," all come 
after the old seed has passed away in its corruption. 
This analogy to human change from the mortal to the 
immortal was early observed. In reference to his 
own death Jesus Christ said, " Except a corn of wheat 
fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone ; but if 



GENERAL RESURRECTION. 309 

it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." ^ And so the 
apostle Paul : " That which thou sowest is not quick- 
ened except it die."^ There is ever the passing 
through this form of death by the seed, in its develop- 
ment to the new and complete plant ; and the analogy 
not merely illustrates, but fairly indicates, the resur- 
rection of the human body, which " is sown in corrup- 
tion, and raised in incorruption." Human death is 
not annihilation; something of the old passes over 
from the former state, and stands out again in a new 
and more perfect state of maturity, and the two are 
identified in one individuality. If re'velation had not 
used the analogy, there would have been the indica- 
tion of man's resurrection in the germinating plant 
from the dying seed ; and this Scripture use was be- 
cause the index was already there. 

And so, in some forms of animal transformation to a 
state of fuller development, we have equally striking 
indications of man's change in his coming resurrec- 
tion. The worm passes into its chrysalis form, and 
lies in torpor, out of which it emerges and lives again 
in vastly augmented beauty, and with capacities for a 
new experience, into which it could not before enter. 
Aside from revelation, the thinking mind from such 
suggestions could scarcely help rising to a belief in 
his own resurrection to a wider sphere of life and 
activity. 

^ John xii. 24. 2 ^ q^j.^ ^^^ qq^ 



310 last things in redemption. 

2. Man's Instinctive Anticipations give Premoni- 
tion OP HIS Resurrection. — The human spirit not 
merely forecasts its own immortality, but it instinc- 
tively assumes that the body it inhabits will again be 
its abode. No man can well put off the conviction 
that his body is more to him than common dust, and 
that his interest in it must be perpetual and enduring. 
Hence the respect in all ages for funereal rites, and 
reverential regard for places of human sepulture. 
Even savage tribes carefully bury their dead, adorn- 
ing the body, and accompanying it with what may 
minister to its uses in its future blessed abode. An- 
cient people costly embalmed the dead body, to pre- 
serve its form, and others purified it by fire, and care- 
fully collected in precious urns the indestructible 
ashes. Such instinctive prompting foretokens the 
coming event ; and the prophecy uttered in nature 
carries in it the assurance of future fulfilment. Vitu- 
lus percutit fronte inermis — and the butting calf is 
sure to have the future horns. Divine precepts regu- 
late the human premonitions, but they neither repress 
the instinct nor forbid its working. God manifestly 
meant that man should regard these inward teachings. 

3. Reason establishes a Claim to the Reitnion 
OF Body and Spirit. — Essentially, humanity is sense 
and spirit. In this complexity it has been tried and 
fallen ; and as sense and spirit, the human has had re- 
demption, and been put upon its second probation. 
Under the gospel, a spiritual disposition has been 



GENERAL RESURRECTION. 311 

made, and the character formed, either in the subjec- 
tion of sense or the enslaving of spirit. In no other 
manner than by the conflict of the spirit with the 
flesh, could confirmed virtue and permanent integrity 
of personal character be attained ; and the issue in 
such trial must be fairly joined, and the result must 
be freely settled by the self-originated act of the indi- 
vidual. When the first pair fell, they thereby settled 
what would come for the race. And when a gracious 
redemption opened a new probation, the issue must 
again b6 individually joined and freely settled by a 
renewed disposition to subject the sense under the 
influence of the Holy Ghost, or by a persistence in 
carnal servitude in spite of the strivings of the Holy 
Ghost ; and which way soever the trial has eventuated, 
the sentient body and the spiritual personality have 
been both involved, and as participating in the proba- 
tion, they should also participate in the retribution. 
The appropriate awards cannot be made, but as the 
complex humanity still exists in readiness to take the 
gracious blessing or the deserved punishment. The 
same body must be present with the spirit it once 
held, or that which in reason ought to be, in exe- 
cuted fact still cannot be. No possible alternative can 
thus rationally be interposed to the fulfilment of. the 
coming universal summons, " Arise, ye dead, and come 
to judgment." 

4 The Authority of Revelation is here ulti- 
mately CONCLUSIVE. — The Old Testament is less ex- 



312 LAST THINGS IN EEDEMPTION. 

plicit than the New in its declarations of a resurrec- 
tion; yet may the teachings of it be satisfactorily 
found from several passages. God seems to have re- 
vealed it in similar language to both Moses and Sam- 
uel : " I kill and I make alive." i " The Lord killeth 
and maketh alive ; he bringeth down to the grave, 
and raiseth up." ^ Job speaks doubtingly, yet a pre- 
vailing faith in his coming resurrection is manifest. 
" Man dieth and waste th away ; yea, man giveth up 
the ghost, and where is he ? Man lieth down, and 
riseth not ; till the heavens be no more, they shall not 
awake, nor be raised out of their sleep." Yet in the 
end he expects his awaking. " Thou shalt call, and I 
will answer thee ; thou wilt have a desire to the work 
of thine hands." ^ David also was assured of his 
own resurrection in the foreseen resurrection of the 
crucified Messiah. " My flesh shall rest in hope. For 
thou wilt not leave my soul in hell ; neither wilt thou 
suffer thine Holy One to see corruption."^ Daniel 
foretells that " many of them that sleep in the dust 
of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and 
some to shame and everlasting contempt."^ And 
Hosea represents the Lord God as saying, '' I will ran- 
som them from the power of the grave ; I will redeem 
them from death ; death, 1 will be thy plagues ; 
graye, I will be thy destruction."^ But all this is 
made more clear by what the New Testament affirms 
Old Testament people believed. "They desired a 

» Deut. xxxii. 39. ^ j g^j^^ jj^ g 3 j^^ xiv. 10, 12, 15. 

< Ps. xvi. 9, 10. ^ Dan. xii. 2. « Hosea xiii. 14. 



GENERAL RESURRECTION. 313 

better country, that is, a heavenly ; " and " Abraham 
believed that God was able to raise up, even from the 
dead."^ And Paul says of his persecuting Jewish 
brethren, " that they themselves also allow that there 
shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just 
and unjust." ^ ^nd Martha knew her brother Lazarus 
" shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day."^ 

The New Testament abounds in direct declarations 
of the resurrection of the body, and in full measure 
" brings life and immortality clearly to light : " a few 
only of the many are here cited. Jesus Christ affirms 
of both good and evil, '^ The hour is coming in which 
all that are in their graves shall hear his voice, and 
shall come forth ; they that have done good unto the 
resurrection of life, and they that have done evil 
unto the resurrection of damnation." * Of Christians 
Paul says, ^' If the spirit of him that raised up Jesus 
from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ 
from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies 
by his spirit that dwelleth in you." ^ John, in the 
Eevelation, " saw the dead, small and great, stand be- 
fore God. And the sea gave up the dead which were 
in it, and death and hell delivered up the dead which 
were in them."^ 

As Jesus Christ is mediatorial king, so, as is fit, he 
is the direct agent in calling all the dead from their 
sleep. '^ I am the resurrection and the life ; he that 
believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he 

* Heb. xi. 16-19. ^ ^^ts xxiv. 15. ^ j^j^jj ^^ 24. 

* John V. 28, 29. = Rom. viii. 11. « Rev. xx. 12, 13. 



314 LAST THINGS IN REDEMPTION. 

live." 1 "I am he that liveth, and was dead ; and be- 
hold, I am alive for evermore, amen; and have the 
keys of hell and of death." ^ It is not to be correctly 
understood that the resurrections of the righteous and 
of the wicked are at separate periods. John saw " the 
souls " of the martyrs '' beheaded for the witness of 
Jesus," who " lived and reigned with Christ a thou- 
sand years," and which was called " the first resurrec- 
tion ; " ^ but this means that the spirit of the martyrs 
lives in the millennium, as Elijah's spirit and power 
lived in John Baptist, and not that their bodies had 
been seen to be made alive. The universal represen- 
tation of the resurrection otherwise is, that it is one 
and the same event for the world of all the dead. 

5. There will re a Special Change in the Res- 
urrection Body. — The living at the time of the 
resurrection are not to " prevent," i. e., go to Christ 
before, " them which are asleep." '' For the Lord 
himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with 
the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of 
God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then 
we which are alive and remain shall be caught up to- 
gether with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in 
the air; and so shall we be ever with the Lord."* 
And to the same purport is the apostle's explanation 
of the " mystery," that " we shall not all sleep, but we 
shall all be changed. Li a moment, in the twinkling 

1 John xi. 25. ^ j^^^, j, jg. ^ Rev. xx. 5. 

" 1 Thess. iv. 15-17. 



GENERAL RESURRECTION. 315 

of an eye, at the last trump, the dead shall be raised 
incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this 
corruption must put on incorruption, and this mortal 
must put on immortality." ^ The manifest order of 
events, in the one transaction of transferring the dead 
and living to their spiritual state, is, the descent of 
Christ, the sound of the trump, the awaking of the 
dead, the instant change of the living to be like that 
of the raised dead ; and so, in arrangement and result, 
the whole human family are made ready for the judg- 
ment. 

In what this change consists, the Scripture recog- 
nizes in distinct summary declarations. The dissolu- 
ble elements which are combined in the flesh and 
frame of the body fall away at the resurrection, since 
" flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God," ^ 
nor has a spirit " flesh and bones." ^ So the organic 
arrangements for digestion and assimilation are left 
behind; for while "belly and meats" are for each 
other here, both are then to be " destroyed." ^ Sex- 
distinctions and relations then pass away, " for when 
they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry nor 
are given in marriage, but are as the angels which 
are in heaven." ^ " The corruptible puts on incorrup- 
tion," and the natural body sown is raised a spiritual 
body,^ and yet the spiritual body retains still its hold 
on the sentient soul, and as that was at death, so its 
moral state continues after the resurrection, since, 

* 1 Cor. XV. 51-53. ^ i Cor. xv. 50. ^ Luke xxiv. 39. 

* 1 Cor. vi. 13. ^ Mark xii. 25. « 1 Cor. xv. 42-44. 



316 LAST THINGS IN REDEMPTION. 

when that time is at hand, " He that is unjust is still 
unjust, he that is filthy is still filthy, as truly as he 
that is righteous still remains righteous." ^ And so 
the man has either the " fleshly mind " or the " spirit- 
ual mind " controlling all his eternal experience. 

The reason of the case also determines that organic 
functions, now needed and there needless, will be ac- 
cordingly dispensed with. On earth, the growth and 
restoration of the body require many extensive ma- 
terial arrangements. A great proportion of the body 
consists of that which ministers to the nourishing and 
perpetuating the body. The entire physiology of 
mastication, digestion, respiration, circulation, secre- 
tion, assimilation, and excretion, relates to the sup- 
ply of new, and the elimination of used-up material. 
All the members for locomotion, manual ministration, 
and organs of sense-perception, are adaptations to an 
earthly state of being, and can have no relevancy to 
the abode of the resurrection-body. All media of 
sex-generation, and reproduction, and alimentary sus- 
tentation for infantile life, belong to the world of hu- 
man probation, and have ceased forever this side of 
the world for human retribution. All these are the 
corruptible "flesh and blood," which will have been 
dissolved and put ofi' Avhen we come to " put on in- 
corruptiou." They are organic combinations of as- 
similated elements, which have rested on the essential 
sub-forces of the body in this mortal state ; but they 
utterly fall away when ''this mortal puts on immor- 
tality." These sub-forces of the body have in them 

' Rev. xxii. 11. 



GENERAL RESURRECTION. 317 

the essential sentiency which came out in the organic 
nerve-irritability, but in the spirit-world are open to 
impressions from only spiritual adaptations. 

The first great change is in the material body, from 
what, as given by the apostle Paul, is " the earthy " 
to the purely psychical body. The jpsucMhon puts 
off all earthy organic elements, which had been super- 
imposed upon it for the ends of its temporal state, and 
retains only the essential material forces, which have 
been the permanently balanced basis, of the entire 
bodily organism. The pure psychical ftody is the 
sentient soul's tabernacle, when all the ministering 
members meant only for this life have been dissolved 
and passed away, leaving these fundamentally com- 
bined forces indissoluble and indestructible, with all 
the soul's sentient capacity abiding in the fixed body. 
And this change is thoroughly completed in the re- 
union with it of the pneumatikon, or spiritual body, 
which had departed from it. The rational spiritual 
energy goes through and combines both the material 
and ethereal, making the whole resurrection-body to 
be one, and henceforth under the control of the one 
spirit, according to its determined disposition. Here 
is, thus, the same sentient soul, the same rational 
spirit, and the perduring substance of the same liv- 
ing material and ethereal body ; making the identical 
and individual personality which dwelt od earth, and 
formed his disposition in time, now fitted to take the 
retributions of eternity. Ine past is in memory, the 
present disposition is in full consciousness, and the 



318 LAST THINGS IN REDEMPTION. 

accountable being now stands awaiting the coming 
issues of the Final Judgment. 

■ 6. The Resurrection as presented by the Apostle 
Paul. — Prophets, apostles, evangelists, and the Lord 
Jesus speak of the resurrection of the body as a cer- 
tainty, but with little particularity in detail, while 
the circumstances of PauPs ministry lead him to be 
earnest and minutely exact in enforcing and teaching 
the doctrine quite beyond any other inspired writer. 
The incarnation of the Lord and the resurrection of 
the dead body were specially obnoxious to such phi- 
losophers as restricted all knowledge within experi- 
ence. The whole cultus and control of life was by 
two eminent Grecian sects of philosophers of that day 
derived wholly from nature ; either, on one side, seek- 
ing all practicable pleasure, or, on the other side, in- 
different to either pleasure or pain, since nature 
would surely send both ; and Paul's missionary life 
and experience in Grecian cities necessarily brought 
him often in conflict with these objectors to such 
spiritual truths. When he went to Athens and 
preached in the market, these new doctrines at 
once provoked opposition. " Certain philosophers of 
the Epicureans and Stoics encountered him. And 
some said. What will this babbler say? and others, 
He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods, be- 
cause he preached unto them Jesus and the Resur- 
rection ; " and they took him to the Areopagus for 

further discussion.^ 

1 Acts xvii. 18, 19. 



GENERAL RESURRECTION. 319 

Timothy was sent by the apostle to labor, and set in 
order churches, among the same class of cavillers and 
disputers ; and in the last part of his First Epistle 
to Timothy, Paul very strenuously charges him, " 
Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, 
avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions 
of science falsely so called, which some professing 
have erred concerning the faith." ^ And the repeti- 
tion of the charge in the Second Epistle, with similar 
but more pointed and explicit terms, explains fully 
that this urgency to maintain his commission means, 
that he strenuously uphold the Christian doctrine of 
the resurrection. '^ Shun profane and vain babblings, 
for they will increase to more ungodliness. And their 
word will eat as doth a canker ; of whom is Hymeneus 
and Philetus, who concerning the truth have erred, 
saying the resurrection is past already, and overthrow 
the faith of some." ^ The " oppositions," or intrinsic 
contradictions, which such sciolists might readily 
urge, as making the raising of the same body an 
absurdity from its perpetual changes, wide disper- 
sion of particles, and perhaps participation in the 
construction of other bodies, would naturally lead 
to the profane and vain babblings, which were to be 
avoided ; but the true and important doctrine must 
be held as standing on " the sure foundation of 
God" 

This disputation, among false scientists, and scepti- 
cism even among professed disciples, induced Paul not 

» 1 Tim. vi. 20, 21. * 2 Tim. ii. 16-18. 



320 LAST THINGS IN REDEMPTION. 

only to enforce the doctrine by apostolic authority, bnt 
more largely and philosophically to expound its mean- 
ing and consistency to the intelligent apprehension of 
his converts. The church of Corinth was in the midst 
of these pretentious, empirical logicians, and one long 
chapter of the First Epistle to this church ^ is wholly 
devoted to the defence and exposition of this doctrine 
of the resurrection, basing it upon the truth of Christ's 
resurrection, and then meeting empirical objections 
by higher spiritual instruction. When they incredu- 
lously and contemptuously inquire, " How are the 
-dead raised up ? and with what body do they come ? ' ' 
Paul in effect answers, *^ Get a little wiser, and your 
logic will be clearer." Even the wheat-seed dies and 
comes up again in a new body of its own ; and every 
seed has its own body, which it renews by dying. God 
gives different terrestrial and celestial bodies to be of 
different grades of glory as it has pleased him, ajid 
to man he has given a natural body and a spiritual 
body ; the natural body is sown in death, and comes 
up a spiritual body in the resurrection. " So when 
this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and 
this mortal shall have put on immortality," the doc- 
trine will have its highest vindication, for "then 
shall death be swallowed up in victory." 

And another most difficult portion of Scripture,^ 
finds in its application to this Pauline view of the 
saints' resurrection its only clear exposition. We 
give our commentary in a very general paraphrase. 

^ 1 Cor. XV. * Rom. viii. 18-23. 



GENERAL RESURRECTION. 321 

— The sentient part of humanity is for the present con- 
tinually suffering, but it is truly of no account when 
compared with the coming glory. For this " creature,". 
as sentient soul, waits in expectation " for the manifes- 
tation of the sons of God." For the sentient soul 
was made subject to " vanity," or emptiness, poverty, 
misery, not of choice, but of God's appointment for 
discipline and trial, by which the " hope " opens for 
deliverance from this " bondage of corruption " to " the 
glorious liberty " of Christian sonship. For we know 
that the animal creation, and as subject to the prime- 
val curse " the whole creation," groans and travails 
in pain up to this time. Yea, even we children of 
God, who have tasted '' the first fruits of the Spirit," 
even we groan inwardly, waiting our inheritance in 
the final resurrection and " redemption of our body." 

— This is Paul's estimate of this great doctrine. All 
suffering and subservient nature is waiting with 
earnest longings for it, and all redeemed saints are 
in hasting ^' expectation " of it. To them creation 
shall no longer be a mere sense-show, but known and 
used in its essential reality ; all sense-infirmity, weari- 
ness, sickness and pain, will have forever passed away, 
and both sentient soul and material body become 
spiritualized in a blessed immortality. 

7. Revealed Resurrections and Translations. — 

The Scriptures notice a number of cases of persons 

raised from the dead, and also of some translated to 

the world of spirits without dying, and it is desirable 

21 



322 LAST THINGS IN REDEMPTION. 

to note what bearing these instances may have upon 
the doctrine of the general resurrection. 

The prominent cases of raising from the dead are 
Elijah recalling the spirit in the case of the widow of 
Sarepta's son ; ^ Elisha restoring to life the Shunamite's 
son ; 2 Jesus raising the widow's son,^ the nobleman's 
son,* the synagogue ruler's daughter,^ Lazarus ; ^ and 
Peter's raising DorcasJ These cases were strong 
manifestations of God's power and benevolence, and 
bore testimony to the divine mission and authority of 
those who wrought the miracles, as in other cases of 
supernatural signs and wonders ; but they have no 
special import in confirmation directly, nor as afford- 
ing any illustration of the Resurrection at the last 
day. The old bodies of flesh and blood were re- 
animated, and the persons restored to natural life, 
and were again to pass through death, as before. 

Then we have the translation of Enoch,^ and of 
Elijah ; 9 and because Moses died alone with God on 
Nebo,^^ and appeared in glory with Elias on the mount 
of transfiguration,^^ it has sometimes been taken that 
he was removed to heaven, though the record is, 
that the Lord '^buried him," but no one knoweth 
of his sepulchre. Such cases of translation without 
dying have this bearing upon the doctrine of the 
bodily resurrection, that their bodies were transferred 
to the eternal state, as those of the raised dead at the 

» 1 Kings xvii. 21, 22. ^ 2 Kings iv. 34, 35. ^ Luke vii. 11-15. 

* John iv. 46-53. ^ Luke viii. 49-56. ^ Jol)n xi. 43, 44. 

' Acts ix. 40. 8 Qe„^ y 24; Heb. xi. 5. 

® 2 Kings ii. 11. ^° Deut. xxxiv. 6, 6. *^ Matt. xvii. 3. 



GENERAL RESURRECTION. 323 

last day will be ; though the comparison must rather 
be with the quick and great change the living will 
undergo when the universal dead are raised. Cor- 
ruptible flesh and blood fall away, and only the sub- 
stantial forces of the material body rise with the spirit 
in permanent union. 

The earthquake, at Jesus' dying hour on the cross, 
broke open the sepulchres of some of the recent dead 
in the neighborhood, and at Jesus' resurrection ^' many 
bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out 
of their graves, and went into the holy city, and ap- 
peared unto many." ^ Here seems a full presage of 
the general resurrection, and as it were the first fruits 
of Christ's awaking from the dead. They went into 
Jerusalem and were known to their old acquaint- 
ances ; but no more is said of them. The probability 
is, they ascended to glory, as the raised saints will at 
the final resurrection. The indication is quite strong 
that a raised body for the state of glory, with its 
corruptible portion removed, will still possess perma- 
nent material forces that will present the old bodily 
likeness, though entirely at the unresisting control of 
the indwelling spirit ; and the same may also be 
gathered from the glorified forms on the mount of 
transfiguration.2 

Jesus' resurrection would seem to have partaken of 
both a reanimation of flesh and blood, and a perma- 
nent reunion of soul and spirit. His resurrection 
was to be established before the living, and must not 

^ Matt, xxvii. 50-53. ^ j^^^q j^. 28-36. 



324 LAST THINGS IN REDEMPTION. 

only be visible, but tangible and audibly communica- 
tive. " His flesh saw not corruption/' and the entire 
body lived again, and was touched and handled ; it 
spoke, walked, and ate ; and as he said, " A spirit hath 
not flesh and bones, as ye see me have." His body, 
like Lazarus' body, could be fully identified by the 
living, and for the forty days after his resurrection he 
would seem to have been as fully in the flesh as before 
his crucifixion. But that body was not to die again. 
The human spirit was reunited, no more to be dis- 
solved ; and when the ascension hour arrived, and 
the body went up from the mount at Bethany, it was 
changed in the cloud that received him from the 
corruptible .and mortal to the incorruptible and im- 
mortal, and which is to have a second coming in 
like manner as this first ascending. His human body 
went to the right hand of power, a truly spiritual 
body as the glorified saints shall be. 



SECTION IV. 

THE FINAL JUDGMENT. 



Redeemed Humanity, as now viewed, has finished its 
second probation in mortal flesh, and raised to an im- 
mortal reunion of soul and spirit in a spiritual body, 
awaits the final Judgment. The fall of man was con- 
nected with the sin of angels, and all moral beings have 



FINAL JUDGMENT. 325 

an interest in the divine manifestations made in the 
work of redemption ; the intelligent universe must 
be intensely attentive to the disclosures and issues 
of the last mediatorial official function. 

1. The Design op the Final Judgment. — The 
intermediate state has occasioned experiences which 
have given full disclosures of character and condition : 
and all the living, in their entire change to the spirit- 
ual body, have come into full consciousness of the 
disposition they have settled each for himself; the 
last judgment is not, therefore, needed nor designed 
for making any new discriminations of state and 
affection of heart towards truth and God. But in 
the wide administration of the divine government, 
many inscrutable measures have been taken for ful- 
filling eternal purposes, and measures of justice and 
judgment, patience and favor, have been so often 
mysteriously mingled, that it has been impossible for 
finite spirits to comprehend the equity of many 
transactions ; and the great interposition of God in 
human flesh, making redemption for a lost race, and 
requiring many sovereign interpositions of providence 
and interferences of divine influence, which the 
consummation of God's design can alone clear up ; 
all must now be reconciled with reason, and stand out 
clear in conformity with righteousness and truth. 
Both for the sovereign's and subject's sake, such final 
and universal vindication of sovereign authority in 
its dispensation of judgment and grace is important. 



326 LAST THINGS IN EEDEMPTION. 

The new basis laid for human probation, the entire 
system of doctrine and evaDgelical ordinances, and all 
the mediatorial administration, must be made con- 
vincingly correct and just to every conscience. God 
will be justified when he speaks, and clear when he 
judges ; every mouth stopped, and all cavilling dis- 
sent shown to be guilty before God. 

2. The Evidences of the Final Judgment. — The 
aspirations of quickened and ardent piety ^^ look for- 
ward and hasten to the coming of the day of God ; " ^ 
and burdened with indwelling and surrounding sin, 
exposed to detraction and persecution, the longing- 
soul cries, " Even so come, Lord Jesus,'' quickly .^ On 
the other hand, the guilty have dread forebodings of 
its coming. Felix trembled at Paul's preaching of 
the judgment to come,^ and the devils anticipate 
their time of torment.* These inward premonitions 
are sure foretokens that the day is coming. The 
reason of the case calls for such vindication and 
deliverance of the good, and such destructive rejec- 
tion of the bad ; but beyond all, the direct revelation 
of God has kept the fact perpetually before the 
world. David says, " The Lord shall judge the peo- 
ple ; " and prays, ^^ 0, let the wickedness of the wicked 
come to an end ; but establish the just ; for the 
righteous God trieth the heart and the reins." ^ Solo- 
mon warns the thoughtless youth of the judgment,^ 

' 2 Peter iii. 12. ^ Rev. xxii. 20. ^ Acts xxiv. 25. 

* Matt. viii. 29. ^ Ps. vii. 8, 9. « Eccl. xi. 9. 



FINAL JUDGMENT. 327 

and urges on all to keep God's commandments : " For 
God shall bring every work into judgment, with every 
secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be 
evil." 1 And Daniel had it fully announced that all 
things should be fairly redressed in the end.^ 

The New Testament is much more particular. " When 
the Son of Man shall come in his glory, and all the 
holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne 
of his glory. And before him shall be gathered all 
nations ; and he shall separate them one from the 
other, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats ; 
and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the 
goats on the left." ^ " For we must all appear before 
the judgment seat of Christ, that every one may re- 
ceive the things done in his body, whether it be good 
or bad." 4 

3. The Day will come suddenly and unexpectedly. 
— There are considerations by which we know the 
world is not yet ready for the judgment. The gospel 
is to be " first preached to all the world," ^ and the 
man of sin is to be fully exposed, before the judg- 
ment.^ But if not now ready, when tbese events shall 
have passed, it will still be left uncertain when the 
Judge shall come. Before the destruction of Jerusa- 
lem, it was foretold that portentous precursors should 
be given ; and the manifestly double representation 

» Eccl. xii. 14. 2 j)an. xii. 2-13. =* Matt. xxv. 31-46. 

* 2 Cor. V. 10; see also Acts xvii. 31; Rom. xiv. 10. 

* Matt. xxiv. 14. ^ 2 Tiiess. ii. 3. 



328 LAST THINGS IN REDEMPTION. 

of the destruction of the temple and the end of the 
world in the prophecy Matt. xxiv. 15 to 33 has in- 
duced the opinion that forewarnings of the judgment 
will also be given. But that generation was not to 
pass before the signs should be fulfilled.^ History de- 
clares these signs appeared before Jerusalem was 
destroyed, but the sign preceding the judgment is 
the appearing of the " Son of Man in heaven," and the 
sounding trumpet, and the sending the angels to gather 
the dead together,^ which only immediately precede 
the judgment scene. All representations referring to 
the mode of Christ's second coming make it to be a 
surprise, from its being unheralded by any indications. 
" Watch, therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the 
hour wherein the Son of Man cometh." ^ ^' But the 
day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in 
the which the heavens shall pass away with a great 
noise." * 

4. The Judge will appear in great Majesty. — 
In this respect the second coming of Christ strongly 
contrasts with the manner of his first appearance. All 
manifestations of weakness, poverty, suffering, and 
degradation have forever passed away, and the exhi- 
bitions of great splendor, terrible majesty, and glorious 
authority are made. All judgment is committed to 
the Son ; ^ and he is " ordained of God to be the judge 
of quick and dead; "^ and he comes in fitting honor 

^ Matt. xxiv. 34. ^ -^^^^^ ^xiv. 30. Matt. xxv. 13. 

'* 2 Pet. iii. 10; see also 1 Thess. v. 2, 3. 

^ John V. 22 and 27. « Acts x. 42. 



FINAL JUDGMENT. 329 

for such an office. It is in " the glory of his Father 
with the holy angels ; " ^ ^' in flaming fire, taking ven- 
geance on them that know not God." ^ " Ev^ry eye 
shall see him, and they also which pierced him ; " ^ 
" thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten 
thousand times ten thousand stood before him; the 
judgment was set, and the books were opened." ^ 

5. Those who are to be judged. — The work of 
redemption has had special reference to men, and 
their probation has been justified through the Re- 
deemer's mediation ; the judgment day must on this 
account specially concern humanity. But all intelli- 
gences have been spectators of the redeeming work, 
and are participants, in some form, in its influence ; 
and hence the disclosures made and the convictions 
secured are to reach all moral beings. " Every knee 
shall bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ 
is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." And this 
not only of " all in heaven and on earth," but '^ all under 
the earth ; " universally, all intelligences shall, by the 
judgment disclosures, be made to approve of Christ's 
work as honorable to God.^ Holy angels have from 
the beginning been ministering spirits to men, and to 
Christ in the daj^s of his flesh ; nor could the judg- 
ment of men be complete without including that of 
angels, both elect and fallen. AH orders of moral be- 
ings — angels, devils, and men — are to be present and 

^ Matt. xvi. 27. ^ 2 Thess. i. 8. 3 Eev. i. 7. 

* Dan. vii. 9, 10. ^ Phil. ii. 10, 11. 



330 LAST THINGS IN REDEMPTION. 

interested participants in the transactions. Good an- 
gels come with Christ ; ^ fallen angels have been re- 
served compulsorily for this day ; ^ and all the human 
race are there.^ The grand end is, a complete and 
universal vindication of God towards all, and in the 
presence of all; forever settling the integrity of the 
government of God as extending over all worlds. 

6. All Secrets then laid open. — Isaiah repre- 
sents God as saying to his people, ^^ I, even I, am he 
that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own 
sake, and w^ill not remember thy sins.'' * On this ac- 
count, and as if to save from degradation to them- 
selves and dishonor to Christ, it has been surmised 
that saints shall not have their secret sins disclosed. 
But the meaning of the text is exhausted, in that God 
will not remember his people's sins so as to punish ; 
and the grace of Christ to his children cannot appear 
but in the amount of sins forgiven. The full declara- 
tion is, " God shall bring every work into judgment, 
with every secret thing, whether it be good or 
whether it be evil." ^ And not only the conduct of 
the subjects shall be brought to light, but the deal- 
ings of God the Sovereign shall have their explana- 
tion. The many unaccountable and mysterious provi- 
dences, wherein God hid his counsels, shall so be fully 
unfolded that all shall acquiesce and praise. God has 

» Luke ix. 26. 22 Pet. 2, 4 ; Jude 6. ^ Kev. xx. 12. 

* Isa. xliii. 25. ^ Eccl. xii. 14. 



FINAL JUDGMENT. 331 

beforehand said, " What I do thou knowest not now, 
but thou shalt know hereafter/' ^ 

7. Form and Process of the Judgment. — From 
the several representations of the judgment we may 
obtain the following particulars in form and process, 
after the manner of human judicial proceedings : 
There will be the throne, or judgment seat, and this 
occupied by the Lord Jesus Christ as Judge.^ There 
will be evidence received, as if from accredited affida- 
vits and recorded depositions in '^ books/' indicating 
the disclosures of omniscience.^ " And the dead were 
judged out of those things which were written in the 
books according to their works." Judicial decisions 
and official sentences will be given ; * and besides the 
books of testimony, the Judge has kept his record of 
all the names he justifies in his own "book of life." 5 
It was an ancient practice, after trial, to arrange the 
acquitted and the condemned in opposite ranks, and so 
at the judgment it is " as a shepherd divideth sheep 
from goats ; " ^ and the respective allotments follow." 

These representations, instead of being taken as 
literal transactions, are rather a mode of expressing 
full, impartial trial, and righteous decision and execu- 
tion. All iniquity is uncovered, and every person's 

' John xiii. 7. ^ Matt. xxv. 31 ; Rev. xx. 11. 

^ Dan. vii. 10; 1 Cor. iv. 5; Rev. xx. 12. 

* Matt. xxv. 31 and 41. 

^ Mai. iii. 16 ; Rev. xx. 12 and 16 ; Rev. xxi. 27. 

^ Matt. xxv. 32. ' Matt. xxv. 46. 



332 LAST THINGS IN REDEMPTION. 

disposition and character revealed, and all divine deal- 
ings with both righteous and wicked through the uni- 
verse are put full in the light. The disclosure will 
carry conviction of God's rectitude to every con- 
science. 

8. The General Conflagration of the World. — 
Job speaks of a time when " the heavens shall be no 
more ; " ^ and the Psalmist affirms of the earth and 
heavens that " they shall perish ; " 2 and Isaiah de- 
clares " the heavens shall be rolled together as a 
scroll ; " 3 thus indicating that of old it was believed 
the present order and movement of nature would at 
one time be subverted ; but of the fact and manner 
the revelations of the New Testament are particularly 
clear and exact. Christ says, " Heaven and earth 
shall pass away." ^ And Peter foretells that the heav- 
ens shall pass away with a great noise, and the ele- 
ments shall melt with fervent heat, and the. earth and 
the works that are therein shall be burned up." ^ And 
John, in the Revelation, saw the judgment throne and 
him that sat upon it, '^ from whose face the earth and 
heavens fled away, and there was found no place for 
them." ^ This does not mean annihilation, but a 
making over in a new heavens and a new earth ; and 
as once the world was destroyed by a flood, so at last 
it is to be renovated by flame. And this appropriately 
concludes the judgment, which forever disposes of 

' Job xiv. 12. 2 Ps. cii. 26. ^ Isa. xxxiv. 4. 

* Luke xxi. 33. ^ 2 Pet. iii. 10. ^ Rev. xx. 11. 



ISSUES OF THE JUDGMENT. 333 

sin, and then cleanses by fire the guilty world in 
which so much sin has been. The groaning crea- 
tion finds deliverance in " the glorious liberty of 
the children of God."i 



SECTION Y. 



THE ISSUES OF THE JUDGMENT FOR BOTH THE 
RIGHTEOUS AND THE WICKED. 

From history and prophecy we have been able to 
trace the leading interpositions of God in human ex- 
perience from the creation to the final judgment, and 
find in the consummation that what the reason of the 
case required should be, that in God's acts ever has 
been. Bible eschatology and speculative reason are 
one and the same, in completely vindicating the equity 
and integrity of the divine government through the 
whole process of human^ probation. But here proba- 
tionary history ceases, and speculation goes over into 
the world of retribution ; and in this complete over- 
turn from the sensual to the spiritual, it is to be ex- 
pected that there must be greater obscurity in tra- 
cing particular consequential results, in divine inter- 
ferences with the experience of humanity. The same 

^ Rom. viii. 21, 22. 



334 LAST THINGS IN REDEMPTION. 

stream still flows on, but it here passes through such 
a chasm, and is to emerge from the gulf into so 
altered a region, that we more hesitatingly say what 
the future channel from the past current determinate- 
ly must be. And yet, since in the resurrection hu- 
manity is still soul and spirit reunited, and coming 
retribution is for the disposition and character formed 
in past probation, reason may see in general what the 
issues of the judgment should be in the retributive 
experiences of both the good and the bad. Revela- 
tion also sends gleams of light beyond the judgment, 
and discloses something of the coming occurrences 
between God and man in this spirit-world. 

It may both clear the insight of reason, and strengthen 
our faith in revelation, if we get in a position to 
take in both together, and see how completely, in 
the world of retribution, the revealed dealings of 
God tally with the determinations of reason. Stand- 
ing, then, at the closing of the judgment scene, and 
from an insight of the past attaining a clear contem- 
plation in reason of what humanity then is, we can 
speculatively there see what the future of humanity 
must be ; and can there, also, read the record of 
divine revelation, declaring what the future of hu- 
manity shall be ; and very certainly we shall not find 
any contradiction between them. 

1. All THE Dealings of God with Man, preced- 
ing THE Judgment, have been Reasonable. — Both 
an aesthetic and an ethic interest prompted to an 



ISSUES OF THE JUDGMENT. 335 

outer manifestation of the inward ideal of the uni- 
verse, and thus the overt creation of the worlds was 
in the end of Absolute Reason alone ; nor could the 
creation of intelligences be arrested by anything 
short of the full expression of the complete Idea. 
However variously other intelligent beings may be 
constituted, it was reasonable that in some world soul 
and spirit in union should exist, and give occasion 
for sense-gratification to be brought under the rule 
of spirit ; and thus it was worthy of God to constitute 
humanity with the open way to a spiritual disposing 
in righteousness, and that he should be put upon our 
earth and have dominion over it. He must be tried 
in order to be virtuous in a confirmed character, and 
it was reasonable that man's trial should be made an 
occasion for the adequate trial also of other intelligent 
beings ; and such mode of trial was all reasonably ar- 
ranged. The best possible test for man, and in him 
the best trial for other intelligent spirits, was given, 
in which the devil sinned, and induced man's fall ; 
and God's disapprobation and pity followed just as in 
reason it should ; and such rational abhorrence of sin, 
and pity for the tempted sinner, rationally provided 
the way of Gospel Redemption. 

Under the conditions of a promised Deliverer, in- 
volving his incarnation and crucifixion and the Spirit's 
mission, it was reasonable that a new probation should 
begin, and tnat the human race should multiply and 
be disciplined for an eternal state ; and in this new 
probation for humanity, God has done at his own sell- 



336 LAST THINGS IN REDEMPTION. 

sacrifice all that reason prompts and permits for re- 
storing the lost and confirming the faithful in loyal 
allegiance. In all ages some have been reclaimed, 
and some would not be inclined to reformation ; and 
the judgment day, as we have now contemplated it, 
comes and brings out to universal conviction God's 
honor, truth, and righteousness in all that he has done, 
and all that he has forborne to do. And now, all 
means of grace, hitherto reasonably applied, are here 
reasonably arrested. Patience, and inviting, and so- 
liciting, must now stop or be unreasonable. As a 
righteous moral Ruler, God can allow pity no further 
scope ; for compassion must be reasonable, and it has 
reached its limit. All could have returned, but many 
would not ; all now can come back of their own accord, 
but none that have not returned now will ] and in this 
the issue settles itself, just as the free disposing of 
the human spirit fixes it ; and the compassion which 
bled and died on the cross can do no more, without 
bringing conscious reproach to God himself The uni- 
verse has seen the cup of divine self-sacrifice drained 
for sinners, till reason is constrained to cry out, " It is 
finished." 

The reclaimed are by the judgment acquitted and 
saved ; but it is of grace in Christ Jesus that they 
have come back, and been pardoned and justified. 
The incorrigible are condemned and cast out ; but it 
is for the stubborn hate that did, and does, reject all 
the blood-bought overtures of reconciliation. Divine 
pity for the condemned is as deep as ever, but it 



ISSUES OF THE JUDGMENT. 337 

would be unreasonable that God should act from 
pity any further, and he satisfies reason in hence- 
forth manifesting exactly rational displeasure towards 
them. All sinners now stand precisely in the point 
of just desert before God, and the universe, and in 
their own consciences ; and the Judge is clear in his 
judging, and just in his condemning. He did reason- 
ably and rightly in creating, trying, redeeming, and 
again proving mankind; he had that "joy set before 
him " when " he endured the cross and despised its 
shame," which he now has in possession when he 
welcomes " the seed " he saves to his kingdom, and 
he is " satisfied." He pities now, as he has ever 
done, the stubbornly self-ruined ] but he holds his pity 
subordinate to his integrity, and in this also he is 
satisfied. The number of the irrecoverably lost 
among men and devils may be small, compared with 
the unsinning in all worlds, and the recovered in this 
world ; and the confirmation of the holy in allegiance 
may result, from what of God they have seen in his re- 
deeming or punishing such as despised his redemp- 
tion ; and so in his own reasonably doing and using 
what his creatures have freely but unreasonably 
done, he stands whole in his honor and glory before 
the universe, and thoroughly self consistent and com- 
placent in his own consciousness. He has secured 
as many converts as in reason he could, and he has 
done as much and waited as long for the wicked as 
in reason he might, and he knows that every saved 
22 



338 LAST THINGS IN REDEMPTION. 

and lost spirit has the full light of his eternal in- 
tegrity. 

2. The Future will ever present God as reason- 
able. — The sense-world and the spirit-world widely 
differ, but in both the same Absolute Eeason holds 
sway ; and in this respect God's government in retri- 
bution is but a perpetuation of his government with 
probationers. The " new heavens " and the " new 
earth " are a renovation from the old, — not that the 
old have been annihilated. The material and ethereal 
forces are all conserved, and the recombinations are 
only for a more complete application of reward and 
penalty to spiritual being. 

The righteous have their resurrection-body in 
complete subserviency to the spirit, and it moves 
and rests as the spirit determines. The material and 
ethereal forces are the identical substances which 
stood as the basis of the earthy body, and the one 
spiritual life now goes into the sentient soul and resur- 
rection-body, individualizing it as " spiritual body," 
and yet the same body that was on earth; and the 
blended material and ethereal forces move unhindered 
at the spirit's will, free and rapid as the light in its 
own vibrations. The universe is open, and they 
traverse or contemplate its worlds and their inter- 
spaces at pleasure. They also recognize the accord- 
ant sympathies and dispositions of the heavenly so- 
ciety as clearly as the beauty and harmony of the 
material systems; and there is perpetual fellow- 



ISSUES OF THE JUDGMENT. 339 

ship and also immediate communion with the good, 
and in full assurance that there can be no social dis- 
ruptioi)s, for all are in conscious agreement with the 
Absolute Spirit. While the outlying material worlds 
move, in their respective systems, in the peripheral 
spaces of the universe, and the pure ethereal sphere 
holds them out in balanced security, the great central 
source of this creating power and guiding wisdom is 
the true Shechina, or brightest manifestation of the 
Triune Jehovah ; and yet with no excess of light, for 
the purified vision of the blessed is made adequate 
to stand face to face before it. Since Christ has 
made them right towards God, God has only serene 
loveliness towards themi 

But to the incorrigibly wicked the same Absolute 
Reason, in which the redeemed have become one, 
makes the Divine Presence a most terrible adversary. 
Their resurrection-bodies are also indissoluble, and 
spiritually subservient, like the righteous; but the 
radically difi'erent disposition changes the whole ex- 
perience. This has been in bondage to the sense, 
and the end of the soul is still made to be sentient 
and selfish gratification. Though the carnal instru- 
ments are dissolved, and all fleshly members are left 
behind, the sentient inclinations are still retained, and 
the stubborn spirit keeps its perverse disposing in 
their interest with even intenser obstinacy than in 
the flesh. Their determinately perverted reason has 
become incorrigibly confirmed unreason, and this 
madness of the spirit now works itself out in the 



34:0 Last IHiyG-S in KEDEirpiIOX. 

baser folly and wilder frenzv of the sentieDt soul. 
That sets itself towards gratifications it cannot get, 
and aims at ends it cannot attain, and the captive 
spirit pnts its own immortal energies into these tan- 
talizing enterprises, the continnal issne of which is 
disappointment and shame. Nothing is so repugnant 
to such unreason as the witness of the Absolute Rea- 
son, and they will turn away, both in hate and fear, 
from all that manifests his wisdom and holiness. They 
fiee from the bright central light and glory of that 
presence, to them so dreadful, and hide as they may 
within the shadows of the material worlds, to their sen- 
tient seeking the more grateful. And even material 
nature in its truth and beauty is made hateful to the 
wicked : for it cannot gratify lost carnal senses, and 
it does reproach and offend the spirit now turned to 
foUy. 

And still more than with the beauty and truth in 
universal nature are the wicked displeased with the 
reasonably-disposed life and society of the righteous. 
There is no communion with the blessed, and they 
must associate with the guilty ; and even here, as in 
everything else, their own perverseness makes their 
wretchedness. Xo one can trust or love his fellow, 
for they well know each other's selfishness. In their 
determined wilful unreasonableness, it is reasonable 
that they distrust and disturb one another. There 
must be a retributive method in their very madness. 
It is not the part of Absolute Reason to attempt cor- 
recting incorrigible unreason, but rather to display 



ISSUES OF THE JXIDGMENT. 341 

the terrible irony which sets unreason reasonably to 
punish itself. It is even so that God " laughs at the 
calamity of the ungodly, and mocks when their fear 
Cometh." He pities, but it is not the place for 
pity to help them; be may not even annihilate them, 
for what they have already been and done cannot be 
annihilated. They must, in their own retribution, 
perpetuate the only counteraction to their guilty 
folly. They might at any moment repent, confess, 
and come into reasonable allegiance, and receive all 
reasonable alleviation ; but since they will not, com- 
passion may not help them ; it would only make the 
divine pity itself unreasonable. 

3. Revelation also makes the Futuee deter- 
mined BY THE Character. — To live for the end of 
reason is to be righteous and godl}'; to live for sen- 
tient gratification is to be wicked and selfish ; and 
these two ends of living characterize humanity in its 
two grand distinctions, besides which there can be no 
third class. And the Bible accords with rational 
speculation in making the future experience to be de- 
termined by the character found at the judgment. 
The separation is according to these distinctions. 

Of those ^' that feared the Lord " it is recorded, 
" they shall be mine, saith the Lord of Hosts, in that 
day when I make up my jewels : and I will spare 
them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. 
Then shall ye return and discern between the right- 
eous and the wicked, between him that serveth God 



342 LAST THINGS IN REDEMPTION. 

and him that serveth him not." ^ Jesus Christ de- 
clares, " The Son of Man shall send forth his angels, 
and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things 
that offend, and them which do iniquity. And they 
shall cast them into a furnace of fire ; there shall be 
wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the right- 
eous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of the 
Father." ^ And again, Christ says the dead ^' shall 
come forth, they that have done good unto the resur- 
rection of life, and they that have done evil unto the 
resurrection of damnation." ^ " Behold, I come quick- 
ly ; and my reward is with me, to give to every man 
according as his work shall be." ^ 

4. The Purport op the Bible is, Probation in Life, 
and endless retribution after the judgment. — this 
is true both of the righteous and the wicked ; but 
since there is neither the wish nor the attempt to 
question this in reference to the righteous, we need 
only give attention to the general representations of 
Scripture regarding the probation and retribution of 
the wicked, and this as to general drift without ad- 
ducing particular texts. 

Life is everywhere presented as the period of trial ; 
a prison of hope ; a day of grace ; an accepted time ; 
and thus urgently to be improved as the only opportu- 
nity for reformation and reconciliation with God. 
After death and the judgment, the representations as 

' Mai. iii. 17, 18. ^ Matt. xiii. 41, 42. 

'^ John V. 29. ^ Kcv. xxii. 12. 



ISSUES OF THE JUDGMENT. 343 

invariably are penal endurance ; prison of darkness and 
despair ; judgment without mercy. Chastisement, dis- 
ciplinary correction, is for the probationary state ; but 
after the judgment comes penalty, vindication of au- 
thority, as if there were no expectation further of 
return to loyalty, or fitness in using means for recov- 
ery. It is as if patience were exhausted, and pity in 
vain, and forbearance had found its limit; for the 
wicked are so irrecoverably .lost as to refuse all cor- 
rection, and can be dealt with further only in perpet- 
ual retribution. Reason can to them have further 
application only in holding them in the attitude of 
penal warning, and vindictive admonition of the sanc- 
tity of law and the heinous guilt of standing out 
stubbornly against both mercy and authority. All 
this is just in accordance with the reason of the case, 
and the full scope of revelation cannot fairly be inter- 
preted by any other meaning. This is proved : — 

i. By the Scripture record of Providential Judg- 
ments. — With all the examples of patient expostula- 
tion and paternal discipline, and correction, there are 
manifest cases in the Bible of providential punish- 
ment exclusive of all design for chastisement. The 
stroke was purely in judgment, irrespective of all re- 
gard to the good of the suffering sinner. The wicked 
have been smitten down in their sins with no end in 
reclaiming them, but with the clear intent of vindi- 
cating the majesty of despised authority. They are ex- 
amples like those of the Flood ; the destruction of Sod- 



344 LAST THINGS IN REDEMPTION. 

om ; of Pharaoh ; of Jerusalem after Christ's crucifixion^ 
when the Christians followed their Master's direction/ 
and fled to the mountains of Pella and were saved. 
In all the above cases some were saved, and suffered 
only in chastisement; the wicked retributively per- 
ished. So we must interpret such cases, and under- 
stand that punishment still followed on after the tem- 
poral judgment, else were the real severity on the 
good who were spared, and the greatest kindness to- 
wards the evil who went at once into eternal favor. 
So of Judas, and Ananias and Sapphira in their lying 
■unto God ; if their death were only chastisement, and 
not judgment, the dealings of God were better to- 
wards the dying bad than towards the living good. 

ii. The Feeling manifested by the Inspired Teacli- 
ers. — The inspired prophets, apostles, and evangel- 
ists knew what the truth was in reference to proba- 
tionary continuance and retributive commencement, 
and their earnestness in their work discloses what they 
knew. They were sincere men, and their zeal bespoke 
their true feeling, and their feeling told their honest 
conviction. Their pressing invitations, and sharp admo- 
nitions, and personal sacrifices tell how strongly they 
felt the urgency of the sinner's case, that he be im- 
mediately reconciled to God, and the terrible risk in 
all procrastination of repentance and of faith in the Lord 
Jesus Christ. Such zeal and sacrifice could not con- 

* Matt. xxiv. 16. 



ISSUES OP THE JUDGMENT. 345 

sist with any other conviction than that life was the 
short probation, and that the life to come was settled 
by it. 

iii. So also by the Conduct of their Hearers. — 
The effect produced is abundantly evidential of the 
doctrine declared. There can be no more mistake in 
determining the tenor of the apostles' preaching from 
its results than in the case of any modern ministry. 
Plain, simple, direct, earnest, clearly apprehended, 
their hearers took the intended truth of the message, 
and the result in their life and practice tells us what' 
its meaning was. Some were converted to an entire- 
ly new life, after the deepest sense of sin and guilt, 
and inward struggle to renounce all selfishness, and 
return to truth and righteousness. When the sinner 
did not yield and renounce his sin, he showed the 
pressure he had felt on his conscience by the intense^ 
hatred and hostility to the obligation. Pressing upon 
men the obligations of immediate repentance and holi- 
ness, and offering a free salvation through Jesus' grace 
alone, will induce such conduct on both sides now ; 
and never in any age, nor in any way of preaching 
universal salvation, will such effects follow. Whether 
he obeyed or rejected, the primitive hearer of Chri.4's 
gospel knew it offered salvation now, and endless retri- 
bution if he rejected it. 

iv. The plainest direct Scripture declarations af- 
firm the Retributions after the Judgment to be end- 



346 LAST THINGS IN REDEMPTION. 

less. — Of many alike explicit and emphatic, it is 
sufficient to cite the following : '' Some shall awake 
to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlast- 
ing contempt." ^ " These shall go away into everlast- 
ing punishment, but the righteous into life eternal." ^ 
" Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction 
from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of 
his power." ^ "He that believeth not the Son shall 
not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him." * 
And as the Holy Ghost has the last dispensation in 
human probation, and so all preceding sin and rejec- 
tion may, under this last dispensation, be remitted, 
yet, if the Holy Ghost be sinned against, and its 
influence stubbornly and finally resisted, the last 
overture is herein rejected, and there can be no de- 
liverance. " Whosoever speaketh a word against the 
Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him ; but whosoever 
speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be for- 
given him, neither in this world, neither in the world 
to come."^ 

* Dan. xii. 2. 2 ]yjatt. xxv. 46. ^ 2 Thess. i. 9. 

* John iii. 36. ^ Matt. xu. 32. 



GIVING UP THE MEDIATORIAL KINGDOM. 347 



SECTION YI. 

END OF THE MEDIATORIAL REIGN. 

Redemption, planned in eternity, promised at the 
fall, and opened in Christ's incarnation, was consum- 
mated, as now considered, at the final judgment. 
The wonder of wonders in the whole universe', " the 
mystery of godliness, God manifest in the flesh," has 
now its complete development and perfect explana- 
tion in its own fulfilment. The mediatorial work in 
the oflBces of prophet, priest, and king has here been 
finished. But scarcely is this divine scheme in its 
devising and unfolding a deeper mystery for finite 
reason, than the disposal of it must be when its end 
is accomplished. In what shall the Messiah's reign 
terminate ? Immanuel, God in humanity, has perfect- 
ly executed and thoroughly completed all that was in 
the original Idea ; he has saved a multitude no man 
can number, satisfied his own soul for all his atoning 
travail, and justified the way of God before the uni- 
verse ; and after this, what next ? 

This mediatorial reign has been means, not end ; 
and finite reason may see in it that which forbids its 
perpetuity, while no human reason may be able to say 
what shall be done with it, when God's purpose has 



348 LAST THINGS IN REDEMPTION. 

been entirely done by it. Mediatorial sovereignty is 
delegated authority. " Head over all things/' as Jesus 
at the right hand of the Father is, and glorious as this 
royal majesty is made to be, yet is the sovereignty 
in its glory and majesty still a part of Christ's hu- 
miliation, and it should be sustained only for the 
attainment of the Father's design. It takes the Re- 
deemer out of the poverty of his earthly life, and 
above the reproach of his crucifixion; yet is it given 
to him as the reward of his obedience unto death, and 
is but the splendid badge that in doing service for 
another and a higher, he is thereby pleasing the 
other. Can, then. Deity everlastingly abide in hu- 
manity, and reign only in vice-regency ? If the nor- 
mal co-equality of persons in the Godhead may, for a 
reasonable end, take positions of voluntary subordina- 
tion, yet even finite reason can firmly say, the sub- 
ordinate must again rise to its normal dignity so soon 
as that reasonable end has been gained. And yet 
inherently there are deep difficulties and dark mys- 
teries. How abolish the mediatorial administration, 
and keep the distinctive church ? How the song of 
the blood-bought be eternal, when he who washed 
them in his blood is no longer in humanity ? Reason 
sees a change must be, but finite reason will never 
devise what the change is, and how it must be ef 
fected. 

One human mind, and but one, has been so opened 
and elevated by the Spirit of omniscience as to see 
through this mystery, and state the way of its clear- 



i 



GIVING UP THE MEDIATORIAL KINGDOM. 349 

ing-up for other careful readers of his revelation. 
The manner of moving back from the wondrous epi- 
sode of human redemption to the eternal order of 
God's normal administration, is given ' in one short 
and clear statement ; besides which, nothing of in- 
spiration relieves the necessary perplexity in our 
ascertaining how this gracious digression can wisely 
be brought in again to the one Absolute Dominion. 
In his prophetic exposition of the doctrine of the 
coming resurrection, the apostle Paul opens one clear 
flash of light upon the darkness beyond the reveal- 
ings of the day of judgment, and in this alone, of all 
inspired seers, Paul shows us how the needed sub- 
serviences and delegated authorities in mediation 
lapse again in the Absolute Sovereignty of the God- 
head. But while Paul only tells how the mediatorial 
reign passes into the one Absolute Kingdom, the be- 
loved disciple, John, has the crowning prophetic pre- 
rogative of expanding human vision within the opening 
brightness and blessedness of this one eternal Realm 
for all heavenly immortals. It will most help our 
comprehension of the whole revelation to see how 
the success of the mediatorial reign, according to 
Paul's fuller vision here, culminates in Triune Abso- 
luteness ; and then, to contemplate this eternal heaven- 
ly Reign, as John was given to behold it. 

1. The Mediatorial Kingdom fully committed to 
Christ. — In the second psalm, David introduces the 
Lord as speaking of his Anointed, saying, " I have 



350 LAST THINGS IN REDEMPTION. 

set my King upon my holy hill of Zion. Ask of me, 
and I shall give thee the heathen for thy inheritance, 
and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy posses- 
sion.'' And in the eighth psalm he speaks of Christ's 
dominion in a way applicable to the dominion given 
to humanity over other creatures, saying, " What is 
man, that thou art mindful of him, and the son of 
man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made 
him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned 
him with glory and honor. Thou madest him to have 
dominion over the works of thine hands ; thou hast 
put all things under his feet." And when Christ as- 
cended, after his resurrection, ho said to his disciples, 
" All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth." ^ 
But the apostle Paul makes all this more clear and 
full. If we take him to have been the author of the 
Epistle to the Hebrews, — and that he was, this ex- 
clusive Pauline manner of setting forth the media- 
torial authority is strong proof, — we have him large- 
ly expounding the above words of the eighth psalm 
as God's delegation of kingly authority to the Divine 
Mediator in his humanity. And his comment on 
the passage is, " For in that he put all in subjection 
under him, he left nothing that is not put under 
him. But now we see not yet all things put under 
him. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower 
than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with 
glory and honor, that he by the grace of God should 
taste death for every man ;"2 and his experience in 

* Matt, xxviii. 18. * Heb. ii. 8, 9. 



GIVING UP THE MEDIATORIAL KINGDOM. 351 

human nature and life fitted him to be King, as well 
as " merciful High Priest"/' for every purpose in the 
work of human redemption. And then, again, in the 
first chapter of Ephesians, we have Paul saying of 
'' the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of 
glory," that he hath " set him at his own right hand 
in the heavenly places, far above all principality, 
and power, and might, and dominion, and every name 
that is named, not only in this world, but also in that 
which is to come ; and hath put all things under his 
feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to 
the church, which is his body, the fulness of him that 
filleth all in all." Such, then, from the Father, is the 
Mediator's full investiture of authority over the entire 
Universe. 

2.' The End fulfilled in Christ's actually sub- 
duing ALL Things. — In the last of the psalms ascribed 
to David we have the full execution of this universal 
subjecting of all earthly sway to Christ, under the 
representation of a prayer for Solomon, but which is 
comprehensive of David's greater Son and King. 
" All kings shall fall down before him ; all nations 
shall serve him." " His name shall endure forever ; 
his name shall be continued as long as the sun, and 
men shall be blessed in him ; all nations shall call him 
blessed." ^ And so all through the eighty-ninth psalm, 
but especially in saying, " I will make him, my first 
born, higher than the king^ of the earth. My mercy 

^ Fsalm Ixxii. 



352 LAST THINGS IX REDEMPTION. 

will I keep for him forevermore, and my covenant 
shall stand fast with him. His seed also will I make 
to endure forever, and his throne as the days of 
heaven." And also in the one hundred and tenth 
psalm, " The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at 
my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy foot- 
stool.'' John, in the Revelation, sees prophetically 
this progressive, and in the end complete subjugation. 
The Lamb leads the church and defends the chosen, 
and subdues the nations, and crushes all enemies from 
age to age, till finally, at the judgment, " death and 
hell were cast into the lake of fire," as the destruction 
of all opposition. 

But in Paul's representations we have wider views 
of mediatorial -accomplishment, including not mankind 
and this world only, but also asngels and universal 
being. In taking human nature, Christ not only 
redeemed man, but subdued the devil and destroyed 
his work, and subjected all the enmity that sin any- 
where induces. " Forasmuch as the children are 
partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself took part 
of the same, that through death he might destroy 
him that had the power of death, that is, the devil, 
and deliver them who through fear of death were all 
their lifetime subject to bondage." ^ In his kingly 
authority he redresses all wrong, subdues every 
hostile power, and forces all opposition to bow be- 
neath him in all worlds. ^' Wherefore God hath highly 
exalted him, and given him a name which is above 

» Heb. ii. 14, 15. 



GIVING UP THE MEDIATCRIAL KINGDOM. 353 

every name ; that at the name of Jesus every knee 
should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, 
and things under the earth, and that every tongue 
should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory 
of God the Father." ^ Here is the conclusive proof, 
than which nothing can be stronger, that all sin in the 
universe has its connection with the sin which ruined 
humanity. Man's Redeemer, in doing his mediatorial 
work as between God and man, subdues the devil, 
destroys death, and brings every sinner in the uni- 
verse at his feet. Righteous angels and renewed men 
willingly bow, and fallen angels and lost men are' 
crushed in penal retribution beneath him, and every 
enemy in God's dominion is subdued to our Mediator, 
because he humbled himself in our nature ; and on 
his one judgment-seat, he redresses universal wrong 
in the same right as that with which he squares man's 
account with God. And then, in another announce- 
ment, Paul affirms the necessity for this delegated 
mediatorial authority to last till all hostility is sub- 
jected; and the very last of all that offends God's 
majesty, in all worlds, is the death inflicted on hu- 
manity for Satan's temptation and man's sin in this 
world. " For he must reign till he hath put all ene- 
mies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be 
destroyed is death." ^ All sin had such connection 
with and participation in man's sin for which man was 
cursed with death, that in the Redeemer's abolishing 
death at the resurrection and final judgment, the last 

> Phil. ii. 9-11. 2 1 Cor. xv. 25, 26. 

23 



354 LAST THINGS IN REDEMPTION. 

enemy's head was brujsed ; and this fatal blow on the 
devil was not direct from the absolute Godhead, but 
from the avenging hand of the Mediator, within whose 
reach God the Father had put the devil. And so 
Paul further says, " When all things are put under 
him, it is manifest that he is excepted which did put 
all things under him." ^ As Mediatorial King, the 
Lord Jesus Christ, in human personality, literally sub- 
jects all but the God who gave him authority, willing- 
ly or compulsorily, to his sway, in whatever world it 
may be. All that dishonors God anywhere, when 
taken in hand by Jesus and put in the light, which his 
mediation empowers him to do, is made to minister to 
" the glory of God the Father." So much is all sin 
allied with human sin, that one mediation between God 
and man can reach over and take care of ail sinners, 
in such a manner as to eternally and universally 
vindicate God in his disposal of them. 

3. When finished, Paul reveals the giving up 
OP THE Mediatorial Kingdom. — Among the later 
prophecies of Christ's advent was the following : 
" Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the 
heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry 
land ; and I will shake all nations, and the Desire of 
all nations shall come, and I will fill this house with 
my glory, saith the Lord of hosts." ^ Commenting on 
this prophecy, and its reference to the previous shak- 
ing of Mount Sinai at the giving of the law, the 

1 1 Cor. XV. 27. 2 Hag. u. 6, 7. 



GIVING UP THE MEDIATORIAL KINGDOM. 355 

writer to the Hebrews says, " Whose voice then 
shook the earth ; but now hath he promised, saying, 
Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also 
heaven. And this word, yet once more, signifieth the 
removing of those things that are shaken, as of things 
that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken 
may remain." ^ And this inspired interpretation of 
the prophet Haggai is thoroughly Pauline, when we 
understand its meaning to reach beyond all the 
changes which Christ's coming made on earth, to the 
removing of what could not permanently remain in 
his kingdom of heaven. The shaking earth signified 
that the law had in it a ceremonial portion which 
could not be lasting, but must pass away on earth at 
Christ's advent ; and so the shaking heaven signified 
that the redeemed kingdom had also in it a mediatorial 
part temporarily constituted, and which at last must 
pass away, while the things which cannot be sha- 
ken shall remain. With such interpretation, how su- 
premely striking the appeal following ! " Wherefore 
let us have grace, whereby we may serve God ac- 
ceptably, with reverence and godly fear ; for our God 
is a consuming fire." ^ 

And now, this momentous fact, of the literal remov- 
ing from the everlasting kingdom what is not stable 
within it, is recorded by the prophetic pen of the 
apostle Paul, and by no other inspired penman. Most 
concisely, and yet most clearly, is this astonishing 
transaction given in the following record : " Then 

» Heb. xii. 26, 27. . ^ ^eb, xii. 28, 29. 



356 LAST THINGS IN EEDEMPTION. 

Cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up 
the kingdom to God, even the Father." "And 
when all things shall be subdued unto him, then 
shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that 
put all things under him, that God may be all 
in all." 1 

In this plain declaration much is directly expressed, 
and much also is with certainty implied. Here is the 
oflScial surrendry of the endless kingdom to God, the 
Father, so that as a redeemed church it still remains, 
but as the direct possession of the first person in the 
Godhead. With this presentation of the church to 
the Father, there is also the resignation of mediatorial 
authority, by which the God-man Redeemer has ruled 
over it and over all things, under God, for the sake 
of it. Moreover, it is the direct assertion that Christ, 
having all things subdued unto him, becomes, as Son, 
himself subject to the Father in a new sense from the 
old mediatorial subordination. And then finally, as 
direct assertion, this subjection of the Son to the Fa- 
ther secures a new peculiar sense in which God is all 
in all. The above directly asserted facts make neces- 
sary the following facts by implication. The latter 
are woven in with the web of the former. The 
union of Deity and humanity in the person of Jesus 
Christ becomes dissolved, and the human alone, as the 
Son, miraculously created by God in the womb of the 
virgin, hence onward with no divinity, is, like .all 
created human personalities, subject to God. It is 

» 1 Cor. XV. 24 and 28. 



GIVING UP THE MEDIATORIAL KINGDOM. 357 

also implied, that the Word made flesh, but now dis- 
united with humanity, takes the glory that he " had 
with the Father before the world was," and the 
Godhead has tripersonahty in intrinsic unity as be- 
fore the incarnation. And finally, the necessary 
implication is, that the Son in pure humanity has no 
delegated authority, and neither capacity for nor 
investiture with the offices of God's anointed Prophet, 
Priest, and King ; and so the glorified church, pre- 
sented to the Father, stands now face to face with 
the Triune God, needing and having no official Media- 
tor ; and thus to it, and to all the holy, God is all in 
all. The perpetuity of Jesus' high priest's office, as 
given in the Hebrews, " forever after the order of 
Melchisedec," is fully satisfied by the consideration 
that it endures so long as intercession and sacrificial 
mediation are needed ; for this High Priest, " after he 
had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on 
the right hand of God ; from henceforth expecting " 
all enemies to be subdued, and the sanctified to be 
perfected.^ . The prophetic and priestly offices both 
fall off in the surrendering of the kingly office ; but 
they all last till mediatorial teaching, and expiation, 
and ruling have done their work, and the redeemed 
church has been presented spotless and complete 
before God ; henceforth to " see him as he is," and 
" know as they are known." 

It is also a fair implication for the speculative 
reason to read in this record, that after the abdica- 

» Heb. X. 12, 13. 



358 LAST THINGS IN EEDEMPTION. 

tion of the mediatorial throne, and the assumption bj 
the Word of the glory he had with the Father before 
the world was, the purely human Son of God must 
still sustain peculiar relations to the glorified church 
and the universal spirit-world. No other being can 
be altogether like him. He has been directly God- 
created, as were angels and Adam ; yet was he created 
man, and not angel, and created in the womb of the 
virgin, and not by inspired dust from the earth, as 
was Adam, nor in ordinary generation, as are all other 
human beings. In all these respects he stands alone ; 
and yet more peculiarly unique than in anything else, 
that he has the conscious reminiscence of human ex- 
periences which have been modified by their union 
with the divine. He is still the very human person 
through whom temptation, and suffering, and dying 
came to the divine, and in whose human conscious- 
ness the divine energy came back in vigor and vir- 
tue, which kept his heart from sinking, and his will 
from sinning. The impressions thus given can never 
fade from his own recognition, nor be lost to the con- 
templation of other inteUigences. The human saved 
and the human lost must stand to him, and he to them, 
as no other beings reciprocally can ; and ministering 
angel and tempting devil must have an attitude 
towards him which puts each to each in aspects ex- 
clusively peculiar. With no authoritative representa- 
tion either way from God to man, or from man to God, 
his very mode of being and past experience make 
him a sacramental sign to good and bad, in which is 



GIVING UP THE MEDIATORIAL KINGDOM. 359 

a savor, not as once of divine efficacy, but yet of 
high memorial intensity, and which forever must so 
be, a savor of life unto life to the holy, and a savor 
of death unto death to the unholy. His peculiarity 
makes him universally conspicuous, and every eye 
that turns towards him looks on the pierced one, and 
in him eternally is Calvary presented in sacramental 
symbol, and every spirit, from the reason of the case, 
and in his own conscious disposition, is obliged, with 
no power of avoidance, perpetually to " eat and drink," 
either his own " damnation," or his gracious justifica- 
tion. 

4. John saw the Absolute Kingdom beyond the 
Mediatorial. — Paul only has prophetically seen and 
stated the mediatorial resignation ; yet it is fully mani- 
fest the beloved disciple, John, also looked quite up 
to this closing scene of temporary mediation, and if 
he did not behold the actual surrendry of the media- 
torial sceptre, — as certainly he has nowhere affirmed 
that he did, — he was even more eminently favored in 
prophetic exaltation to look beyond this marvellous 
consummation of redemptive expediency, and have 
the broader vision of eternal life, where all see the 
Absolute Elohim as he is. But while his view is 
more extensive, probably from the very necessity of 
the case, he describes what he saw much less definite- 
ly. The sphere is so far removed from, and so much 
unlike to, the scenes of earth, that all attempts at de- 



360 LAST THINGS IN REDEMPTION. 

scription for us must needs be vague, and only through 
the use of symbols. 

In the successive visions given in the Revelation 
of John the Divine, we have, near the commencement, 
presented to us " a Book sealed with seven seals " in 
the right hand of Him who sat upon the throne. 
" And in the midst of the throne, and of the four 
beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb 
as it had been slain ; and he came and took the Book 
out of the right hand of Him that sat upon the 
throne," and the heavenly choir " sing the new song, 
saying, Thou art worthy to take the Book, and to 
open the seals thereof" ^ This sealed book holds 
the future, and the slain Lamb opens the seals and 
makes the revelations, which John records. All along 
the prophetic announcements, it is this Lamb, who has 
been slain and is alive, that leads and defends the 
saints, and arranges the events, and controls all the 
agencies involved, as the successive seals in human 
history open. Among the closing judgments belong- 
ing to the providences in human probation is the de- 
struction of mystical Babylon, and the introduction 
of millennial peace and purity, represented as the 
coming of " the marriage of the Lamb, and that his 
wife had made herself ready." 2 After this millennial 
period of triumph and joy, " the loosing of Satan," 
and his " deceiving the nations," and the gathering 
of " Gog and Magog " to the last battle, there is the 
final destruction of God's and man's enemy by the 

* Rev. V. ' Rev. xix., xx. 



GIVING UP THE MEDIATORIAL KINGDOM. 361 

" casting of the devil into the lake of fire, to be tor- 
mented forever, with the beast and the false prophet." 
Then follow the scenes of the general resurrection, 
the final judgment, and the retributions of "the 
second death " upon " whomsoever was not found 
written in the Book of life." ^ 

And now, just here, whether John's vision caught 
or not the event he does not describe, must have oc- 
curred the relinquishment of the mediatorial adminis- 
tration, which we have above considered as so clearly 
but concisely given by the apostle Paul. The re- 
deemed church was here, by the Redeemer, given 
over to the Father; the divine and human in the 
Messiah were disunited, and the Word, which had 
been incarnated in humanity, returned to his former 
glory. After the fulfilment of those wonders, whether 
within John's prophetic ken or otherwise, we have 
his further revelation of transmediatorial glories, but 
in highly figurative representation and in the use of 
mystical symbols, and yet admiringly grand and pure. 
" I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first 
heaven and the first earth were passed away, and 
there was no more sea." Created nature, as appear- 
ing in sense, has all gone out, and the merely phe- 
nomenal qualities have passed away, since the sense- 
organism has been put ofi* for the resurrection " spirit- 
ual body." 

The bride, the Lamb's wife, appears as a glorious 
city ; the new Jerusalem, coming down from God 

* Rev. xxi. 



362 * LAST THINGS IN REDEMPTION. 

out of heaven, and within which the espoused saints 
abide. " They shall be his people, and God himself 
shall be with them, and be their God." ^ And here 
we have the enigmatic but brilliant picture of the 
saints' eternal home — to the imagination a scene of 
blessedness inexpressible, and only to be known in 
its reality when we shall be changed into the same 
image from glory to glory. There is no need of any 
sense-media, as of the- sun or the moon to give light; 
yea, there is no divine Mediator, for God and the 
Lamb, as now both one, immediately give light in 
their one glory. " A pure river of life ; a tree of life, 
with its monthly fruit and healing leaves ; no curse, 
and no night ; the Lord's face open to them, and his 
name in their foreheads, and they reign forever and 
ever." ^ All this is in full accord with Paul's account 
of mediatorial resignation, for all is post-mediatorial, 
and one God is all in all. The riv.er of life comes 
out of one throne, and this throne has one sovereign ; 
for God and the Lamb are now but one Being, and 
" his servants shall serve /wm." Reason in speculation 
and reason in revelation come, ultimately, each to each, 
in full conformity; the one saying that we need, and 
the other that we have, immediate communion with 
God in Eternal Glorv 

* Rev. xxi. * Rev. xxii. 



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